Jack Brown

Jack Brown is proud to consider himself a “community musician” who, having been rooted in the same place for several decades, has been able to meet his neighbors where they are on their musical journey and create opportunities for meaning and excellence. As the artistic director of Berkshire Lyric since 2007, Jack has brought his energy to Lyric’s three primary goals: explore a very wide range of good music, develop music educational programs for young people to enable intergenerational music making, and to bridge the widening gap between professional and amateur music making. As a bass-baritone soloist in oratorios including the major works of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Brahms, Jack has sung professionally throughout the United States. As a recitalist, he has given premiere performances by a number of contemporary American composers. Jack is currently on the faculty of the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Ct., where he teaches voice and directs the choral program. He is also on the staff of the nationally known Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, exploring the healing power of music with the patient community. He enjoyed long running relationships directing choruses at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and was the founding conductor of the B’Shalom Chorale of the Berkshires. Jack was recently honored by Berkshire Magazine as one of The Berkshire 25: Most Dedicated, Most Creative and Most Influential. Raised in Philadelphia, he spent his twenties in NYC, before he, his wife and new baby settled in the Berkshires, where he had been a Tanglewood student after graduating from the College of Wooster in Ohio. It is the honor of a lifetime in music to see his Berkshire Lyric Chorus invited to sing in the Shed with the BSO.