Soprano Jessica Jones recently completed her third season as a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, where she appeared as Micaela in Carmen and as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte in the 2000–2001 season. She has appeared with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Houston Ballet, and at the Aspen Music Festival. In summer 2001 she appeared at the Aspen Music Festival as Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites, conducted by James Conlon. In the 2001–02 season she debuts with the Baltimore Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Ms. Jones has been the recipient of numerous prizes including a Sullivan Foundation Grant and first place in the 1998 Jenny Lind Competition, which resulted in a recital tour of Sweden and the Opera Birmingham Competition the same year. She was the recipient of the Lotte Lehmann Fellowship at the Music Academy of the West and was also a participant in the Britten-Pears School in England, the ensemble of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. Ms. Jones’ Carnegie Hall debut this afternoon marks the sixth performance in The Roy and Shirley Durst Debut Series, initiated by the New York Youth Symphony to provide the most gifted young performers with an opportunity to play with the nation’s premier young people’s orchestra.