Music directors prepare for holidays

Given all that Jerry Jones juggles, it’s difficult to imagine how he fits even more work into his crammed schedule this time of year.

For church-music directors such as Jones, the weeks leading to Christmas can be hectic as a shopping mall on the day after Thanksgiving.

Jones has been playing the organ and directing the choirs as Clemmons Moravian Church for 33 years. Each year, he plans something different for the church’s Christmas music program.

“I do a lot of big-time thinking about Christmas,” Jones said. “I don’t believe in getting stuck in a pattern.”

Last year, he put together “A Clemmons Family Christmas” in the church’s fellowship hall. It included music from the vocal and hand-bell choirs, a skit, a dinner and Santa Claus pulling up in a motorcycle.

This year’s program, “A Christmas Festival of Carols and Classics,” will be more formal, with cantatas, an 11-piece orchestra and a choir with more than 40 voices.

He also directs the music for the church’s Love Feast on Dec. 24 that attracts more than 1,500 guests.

In addition to his work at the organ, Jones has helped design floral arrangements for different festivities at the church.

Ray Burke, the church’s senior pastor, said that Jones does other things as well, such as open the doors to the church and turn on the heat or air-conditioning.

“He does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that he doesn’t get credit for, but he does it,” Burke said.

Jones, 61, who lives in Lewisville, does all this after working eight-hour days at Norman Stockton, a men’s clothing shop on Stratford Road.

He started working there in May 1974. He took the job at Clemmons Moravian a few months later.

“I’m single, but if I had a family, I would never have been able to maintain two jobs for that long,” Jones said.

He was born and raised in Winston-Salem and worshipped at various Moravian churches in town. His parents were charter members of Messiah Moravian Church on Peace Haven Road.

Jones took piano lessons for 11 years, beginning when he was in the second grade.

“My parents bought a piano and put it in the front living room, which, in the 1950s, you didn’t use living rooms much,” Jones said. “It was a quiet place to go and, that’s where I’d hang out. I was never the kind of person to sit for hours at a time and rehearse. I’d play for 15 to 20 minutes, ride my bike and come back. I got more time in that way than what people might expect.”

Jones studied music at Brevard Music Center and High Point College. Right after school, he took a job as the organist and music director at Friedberg Moravian Church and took the job in Clemmons shortly after.

At Clemmons, he directs an adult choir, children’s choir and an adult hand-bell choir. He also plays the organ at two services each Sunday.

“I’ve done everything you can do out there,” Jones said.

In 2004, he was awarded the James V. Salzwedel Award for Excellence in Church Music by the Moravian Music Foundation.

Burke said Jones has made music a strong part of the church. “I’d say our music ministry is second to none and Jerry is largely responsible for that,” Burke said. “Not only is he a great musician, but he brings a spiritual dimension to his music ministry.”

Jones said that the people at Clemmons Moravian have made his tenure enjoyable.

“It’s just a very good bunch of people to work with,” he said. “They’re good Christian people. It’s a good group.”

When he is not selling tweed sports coats or directing a choir, Jones enjoys adding to his many collections. “I’m a collection freak,” he said.

Some of the things he collects are Bob Timberlake prints, cobalt crystal from Poland, granite pots and pitchers and Moravian memorabilia. An elephant collection had to be put to rest because it was overrunning the house.

“So I have a houseful of junk,” Jones said.

By Lisa O’Donnell