{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/iiif/m61bk17b8k/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dorothy Lofton Jones oral history, 1998 January 20"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":[" Dorothy Lofton Jones (1936-2018) was a soprano and a founder, artistic director, and costume maker of the Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore. She studied at the Peabody Preparatory and with Elaine Bonazzi. In this interview with Elizabeth Schaaf, Jones describes her own musical development and the founding and growth of the Municipal Opera Company. (Abstract)"," Poor audio quality and low levels present on source media. (Physical Description)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":[" 1998-01-20 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":[" Jones, Dorothy Lofton, 1936-2018 (Interviewee)"," Schaaf, Elizabeth M. (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":[" English (Primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio/mp3"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/215365"]}}],"summary":{"en":[" Dorothy Lofton Jones (1936-2018) was a soprano and a founder, artistic director, and costume maker of the Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore. She studied at the Peabody Preparatory and with Elaine Bonazzi. In this interview with Elizabeth Schaaf, Jones describes her own musical development and the founding and growth of the Municipal Opera Company."," Poor audio quality and low levels present on source media."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - pims0091_JonesD_1998_01.mp3"]},"duration":2005.02857,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-peabody.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/117/431/original/pims0091_JonesD_1998_01.mp3?1624270870","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":2005.02857,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["JonesD_1998_OHMS_20220608 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"ELIZABETH SCHAAF: This is Elizabeth Schaaf, archivist at the Peabody Institute,\nrecording an interview with Dorothy Lofton Jones on January 20, 1998, in the\nArchives of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore. I'm going to sit you here. I was\ngoing to start in a very orderly way, but instead of doing that, I'm going to\njump into your involvement with the opera company [Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore].\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Wonderful.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: But first, a quick little one: You started in the Prep\n[Peabody Preparatory]?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: I did, as a vocal student, interesting enough, in high\nschool--junior high school and senior high school. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=0.0,60.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Peabody, back in those days,\nit was in the '50s, were offering scholarships for vocal students. It was a\nDeiches Scholarship. So, I was able to get a Deiches Scholarship. When I came, I\nworked with Joseph Laderoute, who was here in the Conservatory. Then, that\nscholarship was constantly renewed until I finished senior high school, and then\nI wanted to become a full-time student and I enrolled and went on full-time.\n\nThen things started to happen in the family, my mom got very, very ill, and she\nfinally expired, and I was given the chores of taking care of the home, the\ncooking and looking after the younger children while they were at work. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=60.0,120.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I did\nhave an older sister, she was a year or so ahead of me and she was able to\ngraduate from high school and go on to work.\n\nSo I did take care of the family for a long while and then I was in school on\nand off, so when I finally left home--and I left home after Dad remarried, which\nwas eleven years after my Mom had expired--I went to New Jersey to find work\nbecause it was so hard for a teenager to get a decent job here in the city. So I\nwent to New Jersey and was working in factories. I found a job in a drug\nstore--it was Petty's Drug Store--that was an improvement. Right across the\nstreet from the drug store was the telephone company. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=120.0,180.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"One day, on my lunch hour,\nI went over there and just talked to see what was going on and what they had to\noffer. They said, \"Well, fill out an application, my dear.\" I did and lo and\nbehold I was hired there.\n\nI worked there for a while, and then I missed home, so back in 1963, I came back\nto Baltimore. I was able to transfer from the telephone company in New Jersey to\nthe phone company here in Baltimore. And mind you, while I was away, I did keep\nup the singing and kept up the voice lessons in New Jersey. So when I came back\nto Baltimore and was working at the phone company, right there at 320 St. Paul\nStreet, I had a little apartment. I said, well, why don't I just go back and\nfinish up my education at Peabody? Well, I came back to school and enrolled\nfull-time ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=180.0,240.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and I was able to arrange my hours where I could go to school here at\nPeabody from 8:00 a.m. and was out at 4:00 p.m. But my working hours were 5:00\np.m. until 12:00 a.m.\n\nSo that went on for about three and a half years and I was able to keep up until\nI got to the point of just total exhaustion, and I had to resign myself to the\nfact that I could not work full time and go to school full time. So I dropped\nout full-time and became part-time, but I kept up the voice. So, as I got older,\nI was able to secure--\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Now who were you studying with during this period?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: The one time, it was in the interim, I studied with Madame\n[Alice Gerstl] Duschak and that was a very short period because it was over the\nsummer, and we remained close friends, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=240.0,300.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and then I went to Elaine Bonazzi because\nMadame was filled--she had the full-time students here. And so, when I left\nschool, I was with Elaine Bonazzi.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And she loved your voice.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Well, believe it or not, our voices were very similar. We\nwere both mezzo-sopranos, and I learned a lot of technique from Elaine and also\nJoseph. He was the leading tenor in the city when he was here. I have not ever\nheard such a clear, pure, high voice for a male. He was phenomenal, and so\nthat's where I got the basic Lieder technique and so after working for several\nyears, a friend of mine called and said, well, why don't you think of\nauditioning for Houston Grand Opera. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=300.0,360.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"They are holding auditions right now, and\nwho knows, they might take you. So I did. They took me.\n\nSo, I took a leave of absence from the phone company and toured with Houston for\na while and came back to work. And so, after coming back to work I was able to\nget church jobs. Of course, while I was at school, various teachers had us going\nto churches to sing. I was over at Mount Vernon for a while and down at the\nFirst Unitarian Church. In fact, all of the churches up and down Charles Street\nand St. Paul Street, we were able to find little church jobs and it was\nwonderful. It helped to keep the skill and, of course, the interest and love of\nmusic going.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Who were some of the church musicians you worked with?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Donald King was the very first musician that hired me ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=360.0,420.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and\nthat was at the First Unitarian Church and, of course, he just passed away\nrecently. He was just a dear, dear person and I knew Donald and his wife before\nthey got married. She was Ellen Barlag. I am in touch with her on occasion. Just\nwonderful people and just encouraging.\n\nLet's see. I was in the Peabody Choir. They had a special ensemble that they\nchose special students to sing in, and we traveled a little bit.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That was with Gregg Smith.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes, indeed. And Gregg had an assistant who was Angelo--I\nforgot his last name--but he worked us in rehearsals before we traveled and that\nwas wonderful. It was a great experience.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=420.0,480.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So after I worked for so long and after my little traveling with Houston, and I\nwas out of school, and doing church jobs, I thought, there's still something\nmissing. There were so many people, especially African American people, who had\njust great vocal talent, and of course after graduating from school, there\nwasn't too much to do here in Baltimore, especially in the field of opera.\n\nSo back in 1991, there were about eight people. We just kind of formed a group\nand decided that we would like to sing opera.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Who was in that original group?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: In that group was James Nathan Jones. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=480.0,540.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Junetta Jones was\nthere for a very short while, Beverly Williams, Yvette Matthews, Jocelyn Taylor,\nGwendolyn Lightfoot, Joseph Eubanks, Dolores Jones was there for a while, and\nmyself. So we started what Dolores called a workshop. The workshop was Dolores's\nidea, and in the workshop on each Sunday that we'd meet, we'd meet after church,\nShe would have everybody form a circle and she was using the Godowsky [phonetic]\nbook of recommendations of things to do. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=540.0,600.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lots of good people were disgruntled\nbecause they had already been to Europe, singing Porgy and Bess, they don't want\nto walk around in a circle and vocalize. They wanted to sing opera. Then it was\ndecided that we should really have a workshop, and from the workshop, the people\nthat were learning how would gradually grow into the company. So then, we\ndecided split from the workshop and have an opera company. There were so few of\nus. We started out doing opera scenes and from there we began to grow a little bit.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Where did you start doing them?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: We started at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church at Park\nAvenue and Lafayette. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=600.0,660.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Of course, that facility doesn't have a stage. It has a\nfellowship hall and that wasn't adequate for what we needed to do. At the time,\nI was the mezzo soloist for the Brown Memorial at 6200 Charles, which was a part\nof the Park Avenue Church. So, it seemed as though, very shortly after, I went\nto sing for them, they split off from the Park Avenue Church and became an\nindependent Brown Memorial Church [Woodbrook].\n\nThey do have a small stage but it is very, very limited to what we could do.\nAlthough we did some full productions there, we had to rent lights, like the\nspotlights and the lighting boards. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=660.0,720.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The walls were just cloth, and it would\nabsorb the sound, so we had to do something with the walls. We were always\nputting up scenery, taking down scenery.\n\nOne interesting thing, thinking of Mr. [Tracy] McCleary: His daughter in 1995\nwas a student at Maryland Institute School for the Arts [Maryland Institute\nCollege of Art], and she called because she was looking for some work to do in\nrelation to the work she was doing at school to get credit. I asked if she would\ncome and help put the set together for A Bayou Legend by William Grant Still.\nShe just did a marvelous job.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And tell me her name?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=720.0,780.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Christina McCleary. Although she brought her father to the\nproduction, I had no idea that he had any involvement with the Royal Theatre,\nand I discovered that when I came to the exhibition for Roy McCoy. That was a\nreal shock.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And a classically trained musician.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: It was wonderful. So we've worked there at Brown Memorial\non Charles Street since 1993 and we have tried to do works by African American\ncomposers or works that are not well known and we've also done premiere\nperformances of works that were written by African American composers.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=780.0,840.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"In 1996 we did the premiere production of an opera called Blake by Dr. Leslie\nAdams. He's a well-known musician. He has written symphonies, he has written\nchoral works, cantatas, he has written for string instruments, but this was his\nonly opera and so it talked about slavery back in the 1860s or so. It went over\npretty well. At first, the weekend was so rainy and cold that we didn't get a\nlarge audience, but we enjoyed the production, and we hope to do it again some\ntime in the near future.\n\nWe were brazen enough to strike out on another premiere production. This opera\nis entitled Bent Twig. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=840.0,900.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I spoke to the librettist, who lives in Randallstown,\nMaryland, her name is Dr. Helen Williams, and she was a social worker living in\nNew York and she saw so much poverty in the depressed neighborhoods, of course,\nthe African American neighborhoods, lots of teenage pregnancy, lots of drugs,\nlots of alcohol and it touched her so greatly that she wrote a story on all of\nthe events that she experienced during her work there in New York. She is now\nliving in Maryland, but it talks about encouraging youngsters to stay in\nschool--how to find a better way of life than drugs and alcohol. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=900.0,960.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So it is a\ntakeoff mostly on gospel music, which is a little slant for us, but she is so\nanxious to get that work done, so we promised that we would, so we promised her\nthat we'd give it a go. So that's where we are with that. We are going to open\non February 6, 7, and 8 at Baltimore City Community College at 2900 Liberty\nHeights Avenue in their performing arts theater. We're in the midst of working\non that.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That's exciting. That's just wonderful.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yeah. It's a lot of work, but it's fun.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Who decides the program? Is this an executive decision that\nyou make?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: No, I do have input with other board members. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=960.0,1020.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We have\npeople on the board who are artists, singers, social workers. In fact, one of\nour board members worked with Dan Henson [unclear]. So, there are a variety of\nareas that people come from, and it is so interesting that most of us have come\nfrom opera and lots of them know various operas and so we kind of throw around a\nfew ideas, looking for things.\n\nThis opera came about because Dr. Williams is on our board and, of course, we\nfelt a bit obligated to do this work for her, so that's how this one happened.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That's wonderful. How many productions have you done?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1020.0,1080.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We have done about eleven full productions with lighting,\ncostumes. At one point, we did have a full orchestra.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Which production was this?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: The Magic Flute in 1996. It was wonderful. We performed to\na full house, standing room only. One night we had to turn people away. Of\ncourse, that was because everybody knows The Magic Flute. I think that it's a\nvery well-known opera, and people just enjoyed seeing it. It was a lot of fun. A\nlot of work, but by being so involved in so many different areas, unfortunately,\nI was up all night the night before it opened. I was a bit exhausted, but we had\na wonderful time.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1080.0,1140.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"You have a fairly broad mission. You oversee set design,\ncostuming, casting, what else? Publicity? Organizing the board?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: True. It's not that I really want to do all of this, but\nwhen you delegate you still just have to watch over to see that it is going\nright and sometimes it doesn't. On a few rare occasions, I feel comfortable to\nlet someone else do things, but I think until we become fully funded where we\ncan hire people to do these various jobs, I'd feel so much better about it. It\nwould relieve some of the pressures.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1140.0,1200.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Which of the productions would you have to say looking back\nwas your favorite?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: The Magic Flute. Although we did a very good production of\nSour Angelica. We had a wonderful write-up by Glenn McNatt from the [Baltimore]\nSunpapers, who just had no idea that a little company like ours could make such\nan impact.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: It's not such a little company anymore. How many people are--?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: We still have about forty people. Of course, all of them\nare not singers. They are in all capacities, such as set designers, hair\nstylists, costume designers, lighting technicians, singers, makeup artists, carpenters.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1200.0,1260.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"How do you decide the venues for the operas? Because you've\nhad a number of host organizations.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes. It's a bit difficult to say. Lots of times we are\ninvited to do various things at various locations. In fact, this year we are\ngoing to venture out to Lochearn Presbyterian Church because we were invited to\ncome and do something there so we are going to do an opera tea event [unclear].\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Oh, my goodness, when is this?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1260.0,1320.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"This is going to be in June, I think it's June 13. We are\ngoing to also do an opera gala in April. Of course, we'll still be at Brown\nMemorial. We don't need a lot of space for that. It will be adequate.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: So what is the etude [unclear] production?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: We're doing excerpts from various operas, opera scenes,\nduets, trios, quartets, and we'll be doing some Mozart, maybe some Gershwin.\nWe'll probably do some Leslie Adams music, and fortunately, we have enough\noperas that we've done in the past that we can take excerpts from those.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1320.0,1380.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"It's really a wonderful organization because you're the only\nresident ensemble in the realm of opera here in town, and it's an independent organization.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes so far. It's a real struggle, especially in the\nfunding area. We are looking for ways to remedy that. In fact, I just retired\nfrom my church job at Brown Memorial, so I would have more time to do research\nto find funding organizations for the company.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That's really wonderful. You've really got your hands full.\nJumping back a little bit, how many people were in your family? How many\nbrothers and sisters did you have?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: I have one brother and three sisters. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1380.0,1440.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I have one sister\nthat is deceased. My brother sings. He is a percussionist, and my older sister\nsings and plays the organ and my younger sister plays the organ and piano, and\nthen the other sister is a typist.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Were your parents musical?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes. We were from a line of musicians. My mother's father\nhad a quartet, and he had a tuning fork, and they sang a cappella. He would tune\nthe fork and give everybody a pitch and they would just sing gorgeously. I still\nhave some of her old hymnbooks where they have the diamond-shaped notes and the\nsquare notes. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1440.0,1500.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Mom sang and, of course, she ended up with all these children, so\nshe formed a trio with my older sister, myself, and the younger sister who is\nnow expired. Of course, Dad played the saxophone and he sang bass.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What was your mother's name before she married?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Selma Gertrude Morgan, and she comes from North Carolina.\nOf course, in North Carolina, there was a maze of churches, and her background\nwas strictly religious and so was my dad's background.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Your grandfather's name?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: John Morgan.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1500.0,1560.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"He was the musician in the quartet?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: He was the musician at the church, and he had the quartet.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: So, he was a church musician, as well. And your sister, who\nwas in the trio?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: The older sister, Edna Lofton [phonetic], she was the\nsoprano, and the younger sister, who is expired, Jean Faye Lofton [phonetic],\nwas the tenor, and I sang alto.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And your mother was a soprano?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes. She did not sing professionally but in the church\nchoir and at home.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: She sang for love.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes, and it kept the family together. We had a wonderful\ntime. Believe it or not, mother would have these rehearsals. Rehearsals! ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1560.0,1620.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We\nreally had to get in there and learn our words, learn the notes and she had\nthese music books that we had to look in and get the notes right and the words\nright. It is amazing now that I think of it.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: She really ran a tight ship.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes she did.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: So your first music instruction was really from her, then.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Did you study music also at Douglass [Frederick Douglass High\nSchool, Baltimore]?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes, I did. I took the academic course. In junior high\nschool, it was number 140, there was a teacher who whose name is Mrs. McAbee.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Ruth McAbee.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Ruth McAbee. I was sitting on the front seat in the class\none day and she was playing, a beautiful pianist, I was singing, and she stopped\nand pointed at me and said, \"You! I want to see you in choir.\" She scared me.\n[Laughter] ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1620.0,1680.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I thought I'd done something wrong. And so I joined the choir, and\nshe had me doing some solo stuff. A wonderful lady and it carried over to\nDouglass Senior High School where I worked with Marion Smith, who's still\naround, and she had the girls' choir. The vocal coach was Robert L. Anderson,\nwho had some of the youngsters come to his home after school, and he would work\nwith them on various things, songs, that we were having problems with, and he\nwas wonderful.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Douglass has had a history of wonderful people in music. And\nthe junior high school--?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: ...was Booker T. Washington right there on Lafayette and McCulloh.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1680.0,1740.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"You lived on Gwynns Falls and Pulaski?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: No, I lived on Stricker Street, and from there, we moved\nto Presstman Street. This is all the whole family together. From there we went\nto Longwood Street.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Where were you in junior high school?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Junior high school I lived on Presstman, and we moved to\nLongwood Street.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And you were in the high school when you were at Longwood?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Yes, at Douglass.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: When did your family move to Baltimore from North Carolina?\nBecause you were born in North Carolina.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: I was born in North Carolina in 1936, and we moved to\nBaltimore in 1940.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What brought the family up to Baltimore?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: My dad was tired of being a farmer. And, of course, the\nfamily was increasing, and he needed more money to raise us. I remember we lived\nin a third-floor apartment at 902 North Stricker Street, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1740.0,1800.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and so when we came to\nBaltimore, we went to that apartment, and it is one huge front room and a dining\nroom and a kitchen. And I remember Daddy bringing in boards and sheetrock and\nthat front room was big enough to make three rooms. We had a living room and two bedrooms.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: He was a very talented man.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: He was carpenter, farmer, preacher, singer, saxophone\nplayer. He was a jack of all trades.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What was he like?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: He was a lot of fun. He kept us laughing all the time,\ntelling us stories about the country and of his childhood, his dad and his\nbrothers and sisters, his uncles. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1800.0,1860.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Just a lot of farm time stories, and there\nwere always stories that happened at night when it was dark because, of course,\nthere were no street lights, and lots of things happened in the dark, the ghosts\nand the goblins, and they were called hants [rhymes with paints].\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: How do you spell that?\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: H-A-N-T-S. And of course, it was the word for ghosts and\ngoblins. They were always seeing things in the dark. Of course, he talked about\nhunting. For breakfast, his father would get up and go shoot squirrels and\nrabbits and bring it home. Grandmother would skin, clean and prepare them, and\nit was just wonderful for breakfast. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1860.0,1920.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Rabbit or squirrel with homemade biscuits\nand gravy. Just unreal. Of course, living in the country on the farm, there was\nreally not a whole lot of meat to go to the store. We had the cows for milk, and\nwe would make butter from the milk, and watermelons, all kinds of fruit trees\nand vegetables, so it was wonderful but there was just no money.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: The transition to Baltimore must have been incredible.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: It was. First, we came here before I was school age, so I\nhad a year or so before it was time to go to school. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1920.0,1980.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431/transcript/38426/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I went to John H. Murphy\nElementary School, number 119, at Gilmor and Mosher Street. That was my\nbeginning of school.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I think we'd better stop here, so you don't get a ticket.\n\nDOROTHY LOFTON JONES: Thank you.\n\n[END OF INTERVIEW]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44141/file/117431#t=1980.0,2040.0"}]}]}]}