Our story
The founding members later met Miriam and Lowell Bylar at St. Luke’s Methodist Church, where Miriam herself was the staff accompanist, and Lowell, the choir director.
The first official Jackson Choral Society concert was held on November 26, 1961 in the War Memorial Building in Jackson, MS. The well attended concert featured Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise. Today, the Jackson Choral Society is a non-profit, non-auditioned organization of volunteer professional musicians, music lovers, and anyone else who enjoys singing.
The Jackson Choral Society has served the metropolitan Jackson area for the last sixty years with over 106 concerts, providing imaginative programs of quality musical literature. The Jackson Choral Society has collaborated with several music groups in Jackson, including the Mississippi Chorus, Mississippi Opera and the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. The Jackson Choral Society has also toured Europe on three occasions.
Meet The Director
Artistic Director
Joanna Hunt
Joanna Hunt holds a Bachelor of Music from East Carolina University, a Master's in Music Education from the University of Arkansas, with further graduate work in choral conducting at the University of Oklahoma. She has held positions as choir director in churches, high schools and college as well as director of the Children's Choir of Mississippi. Her award-winning choirs have participated in state, regional and national festivals. Out-of-state performance venues have included Carnegie Hall; Davies Hall, San Francisco; Washington National Cathedral and the U.S. Capitol; Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria and Franciscan Church, Lucerne, Switzerland. She is a past president of the board of Mississippi American Choral Directors Association and a past-president of the High School Choral Division of MMEA.
Ms Hunt is an active member of St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson where she sings in the parish choir. She has two sons and four granddaughters.
