James Conely

With degrees in teaching college English correlated with music, James Conely is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 23 years of active service, nine of which were on the English and Fine Arts faculties at the Air Force Academy, including an Air Force sponsored Ed.D. from Columbia University Teachers College where he studied with Thomas Richner and Louis Forsdale.  During his Academy years, he was a frequent chapel substitute organist, published his first volume for organ, wrote a musical with a Methodist minister based on the life of Moses that had multiple performances in Colorado, and played the first of many organ recitals across the country - Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, St. Malachy’s Actors Chapel, St. John Nepomucene (simulcast in Bratislava, Slovakia), and St. Thomas churches in New York, the University of Florida, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, the Air Force Academy, Stetson University, UCLA, the University of Colorado in Boulder, among many others. 

During an Air Force move to San Antonio, Jim became a music reviewer for the San Antonio Express. He was also an accompanist for the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers, was interim organist for several churches, and had a year as a Fellow of the American Council on Education. Then, in a later move as a senior administrator at the Community College of the Air Force in Alabama, he retired after a few years to join the faculty of Auburn University-Montgomery, reviewed concerts for The Montgomery Advertiser, was awarded a fellowship of the National Endowment for the Arts, and served four years on the Alabama Humanities Alliance Board. Now, along with organ performances and composing, in spare time he is the Alabama Commission on Higher Education’s Senior Program Officer for non-resident institutions.

Besides the Air Force Academy, his college English and music teaching included Auburn University-Montgomery and being keyboard faculty/college organist at Huntingdon College. He has served as church organist for parishes in Florida, New York, San Antonio, and Montgomery, including 25 years for Montgomery’s former Capitol Heights United Methodist Church. He continues as a frequent guest organist for churches in Alabama.

In addition to Lorenz, his publishers have included J. Fisher/Belwin Mills, Summy Birchard, and Abingdon as well as occasional articles on organ technique in The American Organist. He also has a 30+-year background writing production music for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and other professional theatres in Minnesota and New York along with writing for college and community theatres, with scores for all of the Shakespeare canon and many other classic and modern plays for which he has received numerous ASCAP awards.

Growing up in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Jim began piano lessons at age 7, added organ in his high school junior year, and continued lessons in his undergraduate and graduate work with Russell Danburg and Willis Bodine at the University of Florida. He is a long-time member of the American Guild of Organists and holds the guild’s Colleague Certificate. He and his wife, Katherine, have three children, whose homes with their families are in Montgomery AL, Alexandria VA, and Oak Grove MO.