Jason Vest, the associate provost for Academic and Student Affairs, has been nominated for a Grammy award for his work as a member of Conspirare, an award-winning choir and non-profit. This year the group was nominated for Best Classical Crossover album for the Grammys.
Vest, who has been at NKU since 2014, has held multiple roles within the university, both as an administrator and as a professor in the School of the Arts (SOTA) teaching vocal performance.
Outside of his role working in the Lucas Administration building, Vest is a dedicated tenor opera singer. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts and Performance from the University of Kentucky and has performed locally with the Cincinnati Opera, along with many other operas.
Despite Vest currently serving in an administrative role, he has spent over a decade-and-a-half in higher education, specifically in the classroom teaching voice. Vest has taught at Eastern Mexico University in addition to his current position as a professor of voice in NKU’s SOTA.
When Vest is not on campus, you can find him actively pursuing his music career. He’s a current member of Conspirare, which is a 30-year-old choir composed of vocal musicians around the United States, with a lot of recurring concerts in Austin, Texas. The choir’s name means to “breathe together,” said Vest.
“We had our 30-year concert series in October. It’s a group that is mainly classical singers. Most of us have graduate degrees in music and are teaching voice or full-time performers,” Vest said.
However, Vest explained that the group is flexible in the different types of talent that people bring to the music group. Some of the musicians involved with Conspirare have performed in well-known music festivals.
“It’s a group that has a lot of flexibility in the things we do. We have singers who have performed with Austin City Limits who’ve been backup singers for famous pop singers. Those singers can do lots of different styles,” Vest said.
This year, the group is being nominated for the 2024 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover Album. They previously have won two Grammy awards, with the last win back in 2015. The Grammy Award recognizes music across many different genres, totaling 91 Grammy nominations for the 2024 Grammys.
“We actually won a Grammy back in 2015, and I’ve been with the group since 2016 and this has been our third nomination,” Vest said.
The music group’s mission is to make world improvements through music and helping others, all while using their voices with almost no instruments.
“[Our group is] mostly just voice and usually without instruments,” Vest said. “We have focused our mission very specifically on improving the world and helping people feel like they belong.”
One recent well-known piece the music group produced was a musical presentation that was based on Matthew Shepard, an LGBTQ+ student from the University of Wyoming who was murdered in 1998.
“It was a musical presentation all about how we should be treating each other and the love that we should be showing each other. We got to tour that all around the United States for a couple of years,” Vest said.
Vest has remained quite busy, balancing his full-time administrative role with performing across many cities throughout the U.S.
“It is challenging. I used to perform a lot more when I toured and I would be gone about a week out of every month on average. I really can’t do that anymore with my current job, so I really [travel] only four times a year or five times max I can be away,” Vest said.
His schedule often consists of working throughout the day, and then rehearsing for hours at night.
“Since COVID, it’s been a lot easier so I can do my meetings remotely. I start about 7 a.m. here and do meetings throughout the day and then go to rehearsal for six hours at night. It’s tiring, but it’s worth it to get to do this,” Vest said.
Despite the busy schedule, Vest explained how music is the way he de-stresses, among other things such as playing tennis and spending time with his family.
“Getting to do music is de-stressing honestly, because sometimes administrative work is awesome because you get to see things happen for students and for the university, but also sometimes is not as much fun as making music,” Vest said. “I’m a very avid tennis player and I’ve got four kids too, so that’s a lot of time.”
Vest said he will be attending an afternoon session for the Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, and he’ll be walking the red carpet among many other famous musicians.
“There are about 90 categories for the Grammys, so you won’t necessarily see us on the evening TV version, but they have an afternoon session,” Vest said. “I’m planning on going Feb. 4 to the actual awards, walking the red carpet and being there as they do the awards, which will be pretty remarkable.”
The Grammys will take place on Feb. 4 starting at 8 p.m. For more information about Conspirare, visit their website at www.conspirare.org.