Dr. Jeremy Mims, Vocal Ensembles and Orchestra
Visiting Assisant Professor of Music
Chorale and Orchestra
Hall of Music 115
(509) 527-5233
mimsjw@whitman.edu
A diverse musician, Professor Jeremy Mims is a conductor, pianist, violinist, and vocalist. Currently, he is on faculty at Whitman College, where he conducts the chamber choir and the orchestra, as well as teaches conducting. Prior to coming to Walla Walla, Dr. Mims served as conductor of Canticum Novum, an undergraduate chamber choir at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. This group is featured on the website of composer Joseph Gregorio (josephgregoriomusic.com). At the same institution, he taught undergraduate conducting and played for two of the choirs on campus.
Before moving to Kansas City, Dr. Mims headed a successful choral department at Eastwood High School in El Paso. Under his direction, his choirs were consistent in earning sweepstakes at regional competitions and at festivals in Colorado and New York. Mims collaborated with the theatre and dance teachers in implementing a music theater class, consisting of students from all three disciplines. The musicals produced there received top honors in the area, including best musical, best ensemble, best vocalist, lead actor/actress in a musical. Prior to teaching choir and piano, he taught orchestra to 150 children, grades 1 to 6, also in El Paso. Here he was able to combine elements of his Suzuki background with traditional orchestral instruction. Mims is a strong advocate of church music, evidenced in his service in churches in El Paso, Kansas City, and Abilene.
Dr. Mims enjoys his involvements in the theatre as well, having served as musical director of shows for the Civic Opera Theatre of Kansas City and UMKC and assisted with others with Hardin-Simmons University and Abilene Opera Association. In the past few years, he has conducted performances of Don Pasquale, I Pagliacci, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Quilters, Les Miserables, and Working. He has also prepared choruses for Peter Pan, Die Fledermaus, and La Boheme. He was also involved with productions of Anything Goes, Don Giovanni, All-American, and Tosca, to name a few. Notably, he was one of the two pianists for UMKC's production of Most Happy Fella, performing with the esteemed Molly Jessup. As an opera conductor, "the orchestra under Mims' hand was well-balanced and precise" (KC Metropolis).
An active performer, Jeremy Mims has served as accompanist for high school all-region choirs, UMKC choirs, Hardin-Simmons University Concert Choir, Louisiana and Texas Baptist All-State Youth Choirs, Master's Singers, and Texas Music Educators Association All-State Men's Choir. Dr. Mims has played before musicians at Glorieta and Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Centers, the Southern Baptist Music Ministers' Conference, and Texas Choral Directors Association. He has also served as clinician for honor and church choirs in Texas. Dr. Mims has sung with several choirs and choruses, including the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers, the Kansas City Collegium Vocale, El Paso Chamber Choir and the Bruce Nehring Consort. As a violinist, Dr. Mims has been a member of the El Paso Symphony, the Abilene Philharmonic, and the Abilene Collegiate Orchestra.
Dr. Mims received the Bachelor of Music degree and Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Hardin-Simmons University. His primary conducting professors have been Dr. Loyd Hawthorne and Dr. Ryan Board, though he also has had master classes with Simon Carrington, Charles Robinson, Steve Davis, Robert Olsen, John Dickson, David Hill, and Gary Lewis. This past spring, he was a Conducting Fellow at Chorus America's A Cappella Conducting Masterclass, where he studied with Marguerite Brooks and Robert Sund.
Mims has completed the course work for the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. For his doctoral dissertation, he researched the works of Mexican Baroque composer Miguel Mateo Dallo y Lana. He is a member of TMEA, TCDA, ACDA, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
