Jon Harney
SYMPHONIC CHOIR DIRECTOR
Jon Harney is a professor of music at MSU-Bozeman and received his Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, where he studied under Weston Noble, and his Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in vocal performance from the University of Minnesota where he studied with Clifton Ware.
As a tenor soloist, he has sung more than 25 principal and supporting roles in opera, operetta, and major works with orchestra and chorus. While active with the University of Minnesota opera theater, he appeared as The Sailor in Dido and Aeneas, Fenton in Falstaff, Nemorino in The Elixir of Love, Don José in Carmen, Ferrando in Così fan tutte and Junki in the US premier of Rautavaara's Aleksis Kivi. Other roles in the Midwest included Dr. Caius in Falstaff and Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Pine Mountain Music Festival, Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor with Dorian Opera Theatre and Frederick in a touring production of The Pirates of Penzance with the Madison-based Opera for the Young. He earned an honorable mention award in the 1998 Minnesota District Metropolitan Opera Auditions. Performances in Montana have included the roles of Edmondo in Manon Lescaut and Remendado in Carmen with the Intermountain Opera as well as Bach's Magnificat and Handel's Messiah with the Bozeman Symphony, Mozart's Vespers with the Butte Symphony and Mozart's Requiem with the Great Falls Symphony.
​
Harney was chorus master for the Intermountain Opera from 2001-2015, preparing the choruses for 20 productions, was conductor of the Bozeman Symphonic Choir from 2011 to 2022 and is now the artistic director and conductor of the Montana Choral Artists, a chamber choir which he founded in 2023.
Prior to coming to MSU-Bozeman, Harney was on the voice faculty of Macalester College and directed high school choirs in the North St. Paul school district. In 2001, Dr. Harney joined the MSU-Bozeman music faculty where he teaches studio voice lessons. In 2002, he was selected as one of twelve voice teachers nationwide to participate in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program working under master teacher Elaine Bonazzi. In summer 2008, Harney was selected to sing in the Westminster Choir College Chamber Choir in residence in Florence, Italy, singing under the direction of Joe Miller and in July 2010 sang under the direction of Dale Warland as part of the Festival Chorale at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival.
His singers have gone on to graduate voice programs at Boston University, the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Oregon.
