James Heiks

Jim Heiks
conductor/song leader

James (Jim) Heiks taught choral music in the Appleton, Wis., public schools for 30 years. During those years he started a men’s singing movement in the high schools resulting in varsity men’s choruses of 80 to 90 voices in each school. He is also the founder of the Appleton Boychoir, which will celebrate its 38th anniversary this spring. He was part of the Goshen College music faculty from 2004 to 2007. During that time he formed the Goshen College Men’s Chorus, directed the Chorale, Parables, and taught music education courses. From 2007 to 2015, he served as fine arts coordinator for the Appleton Public Schools, and adjunct professor of music at Lawrence University. In 1987 he led the Appleton Boychoir on a Mission of Peace to the former Soviet Union. His choirs have performed in Russia, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Estonia, and Norway. As a student and colleague of Alice Parker, he has collaborated with her on a new folk songbook series for children published by GIA Music: “Alice Parker’s Hand-Me-Down Songs” and “Alice Parker’s Hand-Me-Down Ballads.” He produced a CD of the first songbook, distributed by GIA Music, with singers from the Goshen College Community School for the Arts. Now retired, Heiks has recently formed the Lawrence University Academy of Music Young Men’s Chorus, and also started a small men’s chorus at Rawhide Boy’s Ranch, a residential care facility for at-risk young men.