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The Canadian conductor, Jordan de Souza, studied conducting and organ at McGill University. A prize-winning organist, at the age of 19 he was the youngest to earn the prestigious Fellowship Degree (FRCCO) from the Royal Canadian College of Organists in the history of the institution.
Respected equally for his historically informed and dramatic approach to early music, by the age of 25 Jordan de Souza had conducted the major J.S. Bach oratorio-cycle of the St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244), St. John Passion (BWV 245), Mass in B-Minor (BWV 232), and Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248); he also participated as a conductor and keyboardist in Bach Cantata Cycles at Trinity Wall Street in New York City (Bach at One) and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal: Cantates de Bach, often appearing with the Theatre of Early Music in similar repertoire. In the 2007-08 season, he inaugurated Hellmuth Wolff’s Op. 49 chamber organ in Montréal’s Redpath Hall as a soloist in George Frideric Handel's Organ Concerti with McGill’s Baroque Orchestra.
A highly sought-after collaborator by orchestras and singers, Jordan de Souza has worked with leading international opera directors including Stefan Herheim (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Robert Carsen (Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites), Claus Guth (W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro), John Caird (La bohème), Kirill Serebrennikov (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Tim Albery (M’dea Undone), Olivier Tambosi (Amleto), and Morris Panych (The Overcoat). On the concert stage, he has given performances of Verdi’s Requiem with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra at the National Arts Centre, W.A. Mozart’s Requiem and Great Mass in C-minor, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, and J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243) with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association, and G.F. Handel’s Messiah with Symphony Nova Scotia and Ensemble Caprice. The up-and-coming conductor has made a name for himself both in his native Canada and abroad.
Jordan de Souza served formerly as Cover Conductor for the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto (2014-2015), Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Ottawa Choral Society (2012-2015), Conductor of the Choir of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montréal (2008-2015). Alongside his work with the Bregenzer Festspiele (since 2015), he regularly conducts with the Canadian Opera Company, Tapestry Opera, one of North America’s leading contemporary opera company for over thirty-five years (Conductor-in-Residence, since 2013), and Opéra de Montréal, Orchestre Métropolitain. In 2015, the Canadian Broadcasting Company named him one of “CBC’s Top 30 Classical Musicians Under 30”. He was described by Ottawa Citizen as “the fast-rising young Canadian maestro with a busy international career”. On Souza’s conducting of Verdi’s Requiem, one critic was drawn “by the quasi-Apollonian direction, clearly structured, lean, elegant and fluid” (La Presse) and another by his “military precision and preternatural self-assurance and aplomb” (Ottawa Citizen).
Jordan de Souza began to work with the Komische Oper Berlin in 2016 as Studienleiter (Head of Music Staff) and has been its Kapellmeister since the 2017-2018 season, joining forces with Barrie Kosky in one of Europe’s most engaging theatres. Conducting debuts in 2016 include productions with the Canadian Opera Company (W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro), l'Opéra de Montréal and l’Orchestre Métropolitain (W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni), Komische Oper Berlin (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and the Bregenz Festival and Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg (W.A. Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne). In 2016-2017 season, he conducted Il barbiere di Siviglia, W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Eugene Onegin at the Komsiche Oper Berlin. In his native Canada, he conducted Don Giovanni with l’Opéra de Montréal and l’Orchestre Métropolitain, symphonic programmes with Symphony Nova Scotia, and his third world major world-premiere with Tapestry Opera: The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. Other recent performance highlights include W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with the Sudbury Symphony, a Verdi-Wagner Gala with the Lachine Philharmonic, Carmen with Saskatoon Opera, Béatrice et Bénédict with the Edmonton Vocal Arts Festival, and the world premieres of critically acclaimed M'dea Undone and Rocking Horse Winner with Tapestry Opera in collaboration with Scottish Opera.
During the 2017-2018 season, Jordan de Souza conducts thirteen performances of a new production of Georges Bizet's Carmen with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Bregenz Festival (Austria), a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande, and revivals of Petrushka/L'enfant et les sortilèges, W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and Eugene Onegin at the Komische Oper Berlin. In the symphonic realm, he will debut with the Victoria Symphony in Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 with Jon Kimura Parker, and concerts in Berlin of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, in Dessau at the Kurt Weill Festival of L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, and at the Chorin Musiksommerfest including L.v. Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Soon to follow are restagings of Il barbiere di Siviglia and Don Giovanni, and a symphony concert featuring works by Tchaikovsky and Schreker.
Jordan de Souza served on the faculty of McGill University from 2011 to 2015. He has been a guest coach with l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, the Ensemble Studios of the Canadian Opera Company and Houston Grand Opera, and has served as a resident artist of the Banff Centre (Canada) and the Franz-Schubert-Institut (Austria).
In demand as a clinician, Jordan de Souza gives master-classes for the University of Toronto, Tapestry Opera, and the Canadian Operatic Arts Academy in the 2015-2016 season. As a freelance artist, he has worked in North America and Europe, including engagements with the Houston Grand Opera, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Hidden Valley Opera (California), the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Opera McGill, the Janiec Opera Company (North Carolina), and Opera NUOVA. He has been a guest coach with l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, the Canadian Opera Company’s and Houston Grand Opera's Ensemble Studio, and a resident artist of the Banff Centre and the Franz-Schubert-Institut.
Having inaugurated a new chamber organ by Hellmuth Wolff with Handel Organ Concertos in Montreal’s Redpath Hall in 2007, Jordan de Souza continues to concertize as a pianist, harpsichordist, and organist and performances, both as soloist and conductor, have been broadcast regularly on the CBC, BBC, and throughout the European Broadcasting Union since 2008. |
