Rob Opdycke, Baritone

Rob became a Jones in 1999, just before graduating from Harvard College. On stage, he can be found wailing away the lead to "Brick House" or blending in a baritone part to one of his original tunes. Writing music is a relatively new passion for Rob, and a number of his songs are featured on SJ's Can't Get There From Here. His biggest influence as a songwriter has been Billy Joel.

Rob's first a cappella experience came in high school, where he founded and sang in the vocal jazz quartet, For Instance. He began arranging for the voices of For Instance, and for the horn section of his pop-rock cover band, Best Regards (Rob played keyboard and shared the lead singer duties). His first original songs were written for Best Regards. In college, Rob sang in the Harvard Glee Club and the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones. He was music director of the Vtones for two years, and his college arrangements can be heard on their last two CDs. Since college, Rob has been a Jones by night and a high school music teacher by day. He is director of music at The Roxbury Latin School; in addition to conducting music department courses and ensembles, Rob directs RL's own a cappella group, the Latonics.

Rob was a die-hard Red Sox fan until he converted and became a Chicago Cubs fan on October 26, 2004. Talk about bad timing.