Jayson Keeton, Artistic Director & Conductor

JAYSON KEETON is a lifelong musician who serves in many different roles including church musician, organist, conductor, composer, arranger, orchestrator, chorister, and accompanist. Based in Charleston, West Virginia, Jayson began his music career as a church musician, consistently serving as a regular and substitute organist since the age of nine. He has held regular positions with churches in New York, Illinois, North Carolina, and West Virginia. In Charleston, Jayson serves as the Director of Music and Organist at First Presbyterian Church, where he founded and curates the Music at First Presby concert series, combining the talents of local, national, and international talent to present free concerts to the community while raising money for various mission partners of the church. Jayson also serves as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Charleston Civic Chorus, and as the accompanist for the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

Jayson is also active as a choral singer, having performed with festival choruses around the country at many prestigious venues including David Geffen Hall (Lincoln Center) and Carnegie Hall in New York City. He has toured Europe three times, performing in numerous notable venues, including the cathedrals of Notre Dame, St. Eustache, Chartres, and Rouen in France, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, and San Marco Cathedral in Venice. In 2022, Jayson traveled to Eisenach, Germany, where he played the organ at St. George’s Church—the church where Johann Sebastian Bach was baptized and where Jayson’s 9th-great-grandfather Johann Christoph Bach was the organist.

In addition to sacred music, Jayson is passionate about theatre, having served as a musical director, conductor, pit musician, or ensemble member for countless productions at all levels of theatre—from local community theatre to professional theatre in New York City. In collaboration with composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell), Jayson produced and wrote the musical arrangements for Dreamscape, a musical revue of Schwartz’s work. He appeared in a concert production of Jason Robert Brown’s Parade, conducted by the composer, as well as the 25th Anniversary Concert performance of Crazy for You, directed by Tony award winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman.

Recent engagements include serving as the Musical Director for a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s one-woman show Tell Me on a Sunday, starring Lindsay Marchio. Upcoming engagements include a solo organ recital at Westminster Abbey in London, England, and multiple dates as a chorister and conductor at Carnegie Hall in New York City.​