Charles Jones Evans is Music Director of the Long Bay Symphony, the Grand Strand region's professional orchestra. He has held conducting positions with numerous professional orchestras and music festivals throughout the U.S., including the Pine Bluff (AR) Symphony, Eastern Philharmonic (Greensboro, NC), Memphis Symphony and Mississippi Symphony. As a guest conductor, he has been featured with the Virginia, Richmond (VA), North Carolina, Brevard (NC), Rock Hill (SC) and Arkansas Symphonies, as well as with the Memphis Ballet and ensembles in Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Spokane and Santa Barbara. In Europe Evans has made guest appearances with the Oradea and Giurgiu Philharmonic Orchestras of Romania and has worked with Conservatory orchestras in Bucharest and other cities. Maestro Evans has an equally extensive background in both traditional and popular idioms. In addition to performing with major Pop artists such as Judy Collins and Maurice Williams, he has created a wide variety of highly acclaimed Rock 'n Roll, Gospel and Beach Music pops concerts for which he has written many of his own orchestral arrangements. Evans' conducting training has included a fellowship under eminent American composer/conductor Gunther Schuller, as well as a fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival. He has also studied under Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Boris Goldovsky and David Effron. He holds a B.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a M.M. from Southern Methodist University, and a D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music.