Biography

Soprano Janet Stone’s first musical exploration was at age four, when she would sing “Row, row, row your boat” repetitively, at increasingly higher keys, much to her parents’ chagrin. She gained much of her musical education at Grace Episcopal Church and the Madison Opera Chorus, both in Madison, Wisconsin, before earning her Bachelors of Music degree at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where she studied under Margie V. Marrs.

Now based in Boston, Janet served as staff singer at Trinity Church, Copley Square for nine years, under the direction of Richard Webster and Colin Lynch, where she was soloist for multiple services and concerts. Most recent of these were performances of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, G.F. Handel’s Messiah, and Benjamin Britten’s The Company of Heaven. Other recent solo performances include Bach’s St. John Passion – where she was praised for her “sparkling voice” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), David Ibbett's Mars Symphony at the Charles Hayden Planetarium, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, and Ordo Virtutum (Castitas) by Hildegard von Bingen. Janet has performed with multiple professional ensembles, including Skylark Vocal Ensemble, Yale Consort, Ensemble Altera, Zenith Ensemble, Cappella Clausura, The Bach Project, The Boston Camerata, The Handel & Haydn Society, Odyssey Opera, and Nightingale Vocal Ensemble. Recording credits include the GRAMMY® nominated albums: Seven Words from the Cross and It’s a Long Way, along with the first American recording of Francis Poulenc’s Figure Humaine (Clear Voices in the Dark) all with Skylark Ensemble. Other album credits include two albums of music by Hilary Tann with Cappella Clausura, The Lamb’s Journey and Dazzling Light with Ensemble Altera, and A Christmas Carol with Skylark. She also recorded vocals for the Charles Hayden Planetarium film God, Science, and Our Search for Meaning in collaboration with best-selling author Dan Brown.

Janet thoroughly enjoys working directly with composers, and has premiered works by Benedict Sheehan, Greg Brown, Dan Tepfer, Patricia Van Ness, Elena Ruehr, Adam Jacob Simon, Nell Shaw Cohen, Joey Meland, and Richard Webster.

Click Here for various lengths of Janet’s biography for use in concert programs and other publications.