Jordan de Souza, Conductor

CV

Highlights of Jordan's performances at St. Andrew and St. Paul there include conducting the 2009 Christmas Sing-In, broadcast on the CBC and through the European Broadcasting Union in over 20 countries, a concert with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Players' Association and Bach's St. John Passion, performed with period instruments and soloists that included American baritone Sanford Sylvan. Upcoming performances include Bach's Mass in B Minor with a period orchestra made up of North America's leading historical performance experts.

Since January 2008, Jordan has been the Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master of Opera McGill, having made his operatic conducting debut in their production of Così fan tutte and most recently appearing in their 2010 production of The Rake's Progress. He is slated to be Music Director of Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti this spring. Jordan has also assisted the preparation of various operas including Die Zauberflöte, The Rape of Lucretia, Little Women and Les contes d'Hoffmann. For the past two summers he has been the Assistant Conductor, Chorus Master and Coach for the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center, under the artistic direction of Keith Lockhart. He has worked with conductors including Christopher Larkin and stage directors David Gately and Dorothy Danner. This summer, Jordan has been invited to conduct Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict at Opera NUOVA in Edmonton before continuing on to Italy where he will be the Assistant Conductor and Répétiteur at COSI, with performances including Handel's Giulio Cesare and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.

Jordan has led a busy musical life from a young age. An alumnus of St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto, he has concertized extensively throughout North America as a conductor, pianist, organist and accompanist. At the age of 19, he earned the Fellowship degree from the Royal Canadian College of Organists, winning all three prizes for highest marks nationwide. He currently sits on the Examinations Committee of the RCCO. In 2008, Jordan was awarded the scholarship for Outstanding Achievement in the Department of Performance from McGill University for the second consecutive year. He was also the recipient of a SSHRC Master's grant from the Government of Canada for studies in rhetoric and hermeneutics in Bach's large choral-orchestral works. Jordan is currently in the Master's degree program at McGill University studying Orchestral Conducting and Opera Coaching. His principal teachers are Alexis Hauser, Julian Wachner, Patrick Hansen and Michael McMahon.