Jori J. Jennings

Mezzo-soprano, Dr. Jori Jennings, is a native of Northwest Indiana and an active performer in the Chicagoland area. Dr. Jennings currently serves as the voice area coordinator for the music department of Moody Bible Institute, where she teaches applied voice, opera workshop, diction for singers, and vocal pedagogy. Her areas of specialty include the use of technology in the voice studio, contemporary vocal pedagogy, and voice science.

As a soloist, Dr. Jennings made her Carnegie Hall debut as the mezzo soloist in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Mozart’s Coronation Mass. Other concert credits feature works with local and regional organizations such as the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra, Blackburn College, the Prairie Ensemble of Champaign-Urbana and the Chicago Bach Ensemble. Equally at home in operatic literature, Dr. Jennings frequently performs with Chicago-based companies. Favorite roles include the Secretary in Menotti's The Consul, La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi,  the Monitor/Abbess in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Alisa in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Main Street Opera, Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan Tutte with Transgressive Theater Opera and the Second Lady in The Magic Flute with American Chamber Opera. Past performances also feature roles with Chicago Vocal Arts Consortium (CVAC), Katydid Opera, Elgin Opera, Illinois Opera Theater, Quad Cities Symphony and Doña Ana Lyric Opera.

When not singing or teaching, Dr. Jennings enjoys taking method acting and improv classes as well as spending time with her husband and three daughters riding bikes along the lakefront trail in Chicago or scouting out new restaurants.

Vocal pedagogy and technology in the voice studio

"Abuse It and Lose It." In The Moody Handbook of Preaching, edited by John Koessler. Chicago: Moody, 2008.

"The Effects of Frequency Range, Vowel, Dynamic Loudness Level and Gender on Nasalance in Amateur and Classically Trained Singers." Journal of Voice 22, no. 1 (2008): 75-89.