Music, Memories Featured in Concert Honoring Professor's Life and Legacy

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Eddie Jones, an associate professor of music at the University of Arkansas and beloved educator, mentor and friend, died last month at age 62. Students, colleagues, family and friends will celebrate his life and legacy with a choral concert, “Praise the Lord! Celebrating the Life of Dr. Eddie Jones” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, in the Walton Arts Center.

The concert is free and open to the community, and all are invited to join members of the Department of Music as they celebrate a life that touched so many.

Jones taught courses in voice and choral methods, and he served as director of the University of Arkansas Concert Choir and the University of Arkansas Inspirational Chorale. The concert will include performances by these ensembles as well as the Collegiate Chorale, Women’s Chorus and Schola Cantorum. The Inspirational Chorale will perform one of Jones’ original arrangements, Precious Lord. Colleagues and students will speak in remembrance and share experiences of the joy and inspiration Jones brought to their lives.

“He greeted everyone with a smile, and he sincerely cared about people,” said Ronda Mains, chair of the Department of Music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. “Students loved him because they knew that he cared about them as musicians and as unique individuals. I have never met a more positive or optimistic person than Eddie Jones.”

He joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 1990 and influenced countless lives as a teacher, performer and conductor. While he will be greatly missed, his legacy lives on through his children and students.

For more information please contact 479-575-3712 or fulbright@uark.edu.