Jane Best was born in Kingston, Ontario, and began learning piano there as a child. She sang in a children’s choir at Saint George’s United Church in Toronto and continued her music studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music and part-time at the University of Toronto. Twenty five years ago she moved to Manitoulin Island to raise her family in the beautiful fresh air surrounded by lakes and trees.
Jane has directed children’s and church choirs and a vocal quartet in Gore Bay, serving in worship leadership for over 20 years. She presently directs the Manitoulin Community Choir, a group of approximately 35 voices and different ages. Together with her family and friends she has recorded three CDs. She has also composed three hymns which have been featured in competition concerts and several of her choral pieces that have published. In the summer of 2013 Wayne Leupold Editions Inc. published a book of Jane’s hymns, entitled Flowing Spirit.
Jane also teaches private music lessons and has a set of small harps for group beginner workshops.
Jane’s hymn, Walk in Newness was selected as a competition winner and featured at The Ascending Voice conference at Pepperdine University, 2007. A Lamb and Yet a Shepherd was sung at Pax Christi Chorale’s Fanfare of Canadian Hymns II concert, 2009. Reach for the Mark was originally written at the request of the Anglican Diocese of Algoma and was more recently sung at the SOCHS Hymn Festival in Toronto 2010. More hymns may be found online at Hope Publishing, and several have been included in various other hymn collections.