The Kotas Project

Elayne Jones began learning Piano from her mother at the age of six. Jones was awarded the Duke Ellington Scholarship from the Juilliard School of Music where she studied percussion. Jones became the first black person to play with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood. After leaving Tanglewood, she was invited by Leopold Stokowski to play in the American Symphony Orchestra, where she remained for eleven years. After leaving the American Symphony, Jones was hired to tour with the San Francisco Symphony for two years. She was not given tenure after her two year contract was up because the orchestra did not want to hire a female timpanist.