John Jeter

Music Director and Conductor

John Jeter is presently in his twenty-seventh season at the Music Director and Conductor of the Fort Smith Symphony.

He is the recipient of the League of American Orchestras “Helen M. Thompson Award” which is a national award in recognition of outstanding artistic leadership and the Governor’s Award for “Individual Artist of the Year” for the State of Arkansas. He is a featured conductor on Naxos, the world’s largest classical recording label with seven successful recordings to date, including projects with the Vienna Radio Symphony in Austria, Wurtemberg Philharmonic of Reutlingen in Germany, and the Malmo Opera Orchestra and Chorus is Sweden. His recording with the Fort Smith Symphony of the music of Florence Price, the first female African American symphonic composer performed in the United States, was instrumental in the current international re-discovery and performance of her music. Mr. Jeter has conducted numerous orchestras in the United States and Europe, most recently a performance with the Greek National Opera in Athens, Greece.

Mr. Jeter has created a number of award winning educational programs for young people including Earquake!TM full-orchestra multi-media educational concerts, Symphony-in-the- Schools, Kool Cats Jazz Quartet and Jolt Electronic String Quartet. Through hard work and dedication, the Fort Smith Symphony was one of a very small number of orchestras in the United States that presented its entire subscription season live to live audiences during the 2020-2021 pandemic.

Mr. Jeter has degrees in music from the Hartt School of Music and the Jordan College of the Arts. Fort the past 15 seasons, Mr. Jeter has also served as the Fort Smith Symphony’s Executive Director. He is a GRAMMY© voting member of The Recording Academy©.