Jane Ring Frank :: Conductor, Educator, Recording

In the world of choral music making, Jane Ring Frank is a conductor's conductor. Her orchestral command of ensemble, her acute sense of intonation and sound coloring, her relentlessly scholarly preparation, and her sparkling sense of humor come together to create a unique choral concert experience-for performers and audiences alike.

An accomplished pianist and conductor, Ring Frank started her career in Los Angeles as assistant to Prof. Frank Pooler, an important choral innovator known for championing new music and experimental performance techniques. With degrees in accompanying and conducting, she began her professional career as associate conductor of the 70-voice University Choir, staff pianist, lecturer, and musical director/conductor for the Department of Theatre Arts at California State University, Long Beach.

Ring Frank moved to Boston in 1991 to conduct at Harvard University. Five years later she founded Boston Secession on the program of Gustav Klimt's Vienna Secession of a hundred years ago: bringing uncompromising art and innovation to the people through public performances. Ring Frank and her 25-member vocal art ensemble achieve this through rich, uniquely-themed programs and exquisitely realized music.

Boston Secession was founded with the belief that vocal music is a uniquely powerful way to share intellectual ideas and has the power, above all arts, to create community. Its mission is to create, through its superlative performances, a deeper connection between the audience and the performers.

In addition to her Secession Artistic Director responsibilities, Ring Frank is Conductor of Philovox, publishing house E.C. Schirmer's resident professional recording chorus. She is a Resident Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, a faculty member at Emerson College, Director of Music at the First Congregational Church in Winchester, and Conductor of the Concord Women's Chorus, a 50-voice women's chorus.

In the Spring of 2005, Ring Frank conducted and produced her first CD with Boston Secession - Afterlife: German Choral Meditations on Mortality. Featuring the works of Distler, Brahms, Bach and composer-in-residence Ruth Lomon, this debut disc has received critical acclaim for its outstanding performance quality. In June of 2007, Ring Frank and Boston Secession recorded a second CD, Surprised by Beauty: Minimalism in Choral Music. The disc features works by Ruth Lomon, Arvo Pärt, Gavin Bryars, and William Duckworth.