Jordan de Souza, Conductor

Jordan de Souza is active as a conductor and keyboardist in all disciplines of classical music. Recent conducting highlights include a gala performance with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association, Berlioz’s opera Béatrice et Bénédict with the Edmonton Vocal Arts Festival, Mozart’s Requiem with I Musici de Montréal, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 4 and Tamberg’s Trumpet Concerto (1972) with the McGill Sinfonietta, a gala performance with the McGill Symphony Orchestra at the Palais des Congrès (Montréal), and period performances of Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Mass in B minor and St. John Passion at The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, where he was appointed Conductor in 2008. Mr. de Souza is an alumnus of McGill University, having studied Conducting, Piano, Organ, and Harpsichord; he joins the staff of McGill as Course Lecturer in the 2011/12 academic year.

Mr. de Souza has been broadcast on the CBC and through the European Broadcasting Union in over 20 countries. He has been active on the operatic scene, music directing and leading from the keyboard Hänsel und Gretel and Trouble in Tahiti for Opera McGill, also having served as their Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master from 2008-11 in productions that included La bohème, The Rake’s Progress, The Rape of Lucretia, and Così fan tutte. For two seasons (2008-9), Mr. de Souza held the position of Assistant Conductor and Vocal Coach at the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center. Productions there included Die Zauberflöte, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Gianni Schicchi, The Mikado, and Little Women. He was also Assistant Conductor at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy (COSI) in the summer of 2010, leading a performance of Handel’s Giulio Cesare with the Aradia Ensemble. Mr. de Souza is a Guest Coach with l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal in the 2011/12 season.

As a keyboard artist, Mr. de Souza’s expertise encompasses the full repertoire, with particular specialty in baroque music and the standard operatic and oratorio canon. Recent period performances include the Mass in B minor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the St. Matthew Passion at Trinity Church, Wall Street, and Alcina with Opera McGill. Mr. de Souza’s work as a collaborative pianist has taken him around North America and Europe, including California, Florida, North Carolina, Edmonton, Toronto, and Sulmona (Italy); this season begins in recitals around Canada with countertenor Daniel Taylor. At the age of 19, Mr. de Souza earned the Fellowship degree from the Royal Canadian College of Organists, winning all three prizes for highest marks nationwide. He currently sits on the RCCO’s Examinations Committee.