William Ifor Jones

William Ifor Jones (January 23, 1900 – November 11, 1988) was a Welsh conductor and organist. Born into a large coal-mining family and raised in Merthyr Tydfil, Jones studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1920 to 1925. He studied the organ with Sir Stanley Marchant at St. Paul's Cathedral, London; orchestral conducting with Sir Henry Wood and Ernest Read; and harmony with Benjamin Dale. He was for a time organist at the Welsh Baptist Church in Castle Street, London, worked at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and assisted with the British National Opera Company in the role of prompter.

Jones emigrated to the United States in early 1930. He conducted the New Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia, and The Tudor Singers in Bethlehem, PA. He taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD, and at Rutgers University - Douglas College in New Brunswick, NJ. While at Rutgers, he formed a glee club and also performed the complete Organ Works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

At the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, New York City, he led conducting courses for choirmasters. He was involved with the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood, and taught many Summer School Workshops, Clinics and Seminars.

He was at various times organist at the Presbyterian Church in Bound Brook, New Jersey, at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City, and at the Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, PA. He also worked with the Handel Choir in Westfield, NJ, at the Bach Youth Chorale in Bethlehem, PA, and led the Cantata Singers in Quakertown, PA.

...
Wikipedia