Artistic Director

Jon C. Peterson, D.M.A. joined the Magpies as Artistic Director in 2011.  He serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Bluffton University.  At the university Peterson conducts the University Chorale as well as the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Choral Society.  He also teaches courses in music history, music ministry and general education.

Peterson received his doctoral and masters degrees in choral conducting with a doctoral minor in historical musicology from The University of Arizona and Southern Methodist University, respectively.  He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Austin College with an undergraduate degree in music performance.

Prior to coming to Bluffton in the fall of 2011, Peterson served as Director of Music and Fine Arts at the First United Methodist Church of Little Rock, Arkansas.  His experience is music ministry has taken him to congregations of varying sizes and denominations in Texas, Arizona and Arkansas.

Peterson has also prepared choirs for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Philander Smith College, the University of Arizona and Southern Methodist University and has sung with such respected choral organizations as the Dallas Symphony Chorus and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

His recent research has focused on hymnology, global worship music, and Baroque oratorio; he has also contributed to GIA Publications’ Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Choir, released in 2011.

Dr. Peterson lives just outside of Bluffton with his wife Karen and their son Ian.