Mary Jane Ayers

Washington, DC

Mary Jane Ayers is the Chair of Vocal Music at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where she teaches voice and runs the opera workshop. Her lengthy singing and conducting career includes performances of early music, oratorio, chamber music, opera, and jazz. Before coming to Washington in 1987, Dr. Ayers was an Assistant Professor of Music at Georgia Southern University, where she developed the Summer Institute for Choral Directors. She has also taught at Catawba College in North Carolina and at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster, and she founded the Children’s Chorus at the Washington Conservatory of Music. She is an experienced stage director for operas and musicals. Dr. Ayers writes student and teacher materials for the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Her lesson plans appear on the Kennedy Center Artsedge website, and she has written student and audience materials for the Kennedy Center Education Department, the Washington Opera, and the Lincoln Theater. She has a best-selling choral composition for children published by Alfred Music.

In 2010, Dr. Ayers supervised the creation of, and then produced and directed When God Made Lonely, a 25-minute opera created by Literary Media and Music students at Duke Ellington School of the Arts.  The opera, with a story based loosely on Porgy and Bess, is set in Washington D. C., on the day of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.  The project was funded primarily by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Washington National Opera.