Nollie Moore
Nollie Moore, Assistant Professor of Music, is director of the Columbia College Music Program in the Department of Visual Arts and Music and has been director of the Jane Froman Singers since 1999. He holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from the University of Missouri. Concert tours have taken members to New York City’s Carnegie Hall; the great cathedrals of Scotland, England, Austria, Ireland, Italy; and concert halls in China. Away from campus, Moore is active as a professional tenor singing regularly with the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, for which he has sung leading roles in Die Fledermaus, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly and Carmen. He can be seen regularly on the stage of The Lyceum Theater in Arrow Rock, Missouri. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2015 as the featured soloist in A High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass by Tim Sharp and sang the same work at the iconic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee in April 2016. Nollie is an active member of NATS, ACDA, and NAfME and has presents regularly at regional and national conferences. Most recently he presented a session on Non-traditional Vocal Techniques in the Choral Setting at the Shenzhen Choral Festival in China. He will present the same session at the Havana Choral Festival in Cuba in June 2020.
Jared Smith
Jared Smith teaches K-5 general music at Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary School in Columbia, MO. He also serves as the assistant choir director at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Jared received his Masters and Bachelors degree from the University of Missouri in Music Education. Outside of Vox Nova, Jared plays bass trombone in the Columbia Jazz Orchestra and the Missouri Symphony Orchestra as well as teaching private low brass, bass, and guitar lessons. He can be seen performing around Columbia and around Missouri in local band Saint Gnome, as well as other local ensembles throughout the Mid-Missouri area.
Jonathan Ray
Jonathan Ray hails from Russellville, Arkansas. He holds a DMA in Vocal Performance with a minor in Choral Conducting from LSU (2017), where he studied with Robert Grayson. He received his MM in Vocal Performance from UNC-Greensboro (2014) and his Bachelors in Vocal and Instrumental Music Education from Arkansas Tech University (2010). Dr. Ray has appeared professionally with companies such as the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Missouri Symphony, Opera in the Rock, St. Petersburg Opera, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Opera in the Ozarks, the Natchez Opera Festival, Jacksonville Opera Theatre, Heartland Opera, Lawrence Theatre Opera, and Greensboro Opera. His numerous operatic credits include the leading roles in La Traviata, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, L’italiana in Algeri, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, L’elisir d’amore, Albert Herring and Candide. He has also performed leading roles in musicals such as Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, and Hairspray. Recently, Dr. Ray completed a two-year apprenticeship with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as their tenor Apprentice Artist. Currently, he is a professor of music at Johnson County Community College, voice instructor at Music/Arts Institute, choir director and hand bell choir director at Avondale United Methodist, chorister with LOKC, and is Artistic Director for Landlocked Opera, Inc.
Jordan Walker
Jordan Blane Walker attended both Evangel University for his degree in Music Education and the University of Missouri where he worked on a M.M. in Choral Conducting with Dr. R. Paul Crabb. An active chorister and director, Jordan has performed with and directed numerous choral ensembles in the Columbia area, including Vox Nova, the church choir of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, University Singers, and the Primo Choir and Columbia Kids Gospel Choir with Choral Arts Alliance of Missouri (CAAM). Jordan is currently an elementary music specialist at Mill Creek Elementary School (Columbia Public Schools) and looks forward to fostering a culture of choral singing among younger singers, as well as nurturing a mindset of critical thinking, empathy, self-dependency, competence, and self-efficacy with his students.
Neal D. Long
Neal D. Long enjoys a diverse career as a singer, pianist, and educator. As a tenor, Neal has been described as “totally at ease” and providing a “sonorous tenor” (KC Arts Beat). His roles performed include Nemorino, Pedrillo, Ferrando, Bénédict, Candide, Lysander, and Laurie. A new music enthusiast, Neal has premiered works by several composers. He sang the Voice of the Architect in Forrest Pierce's Resonant Vessels and The Burning Harp, an epic song-cycle. As co-founder and executive director of The Meadowlark Project, a vocal ensemble dedicated to contemporary works, Neal toured the Midwest with their recital program entitled “Sounds of the Plains.” Neal holds a BM in Piano from the University of Nevada, Reno; a MM in Voice from the University of Kansas; and is currently pursuing a DMA in Voice also from the University of Kansas.