About

JORDAN DE SOUZA

Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza received his appointment as General Music Director of Theater Dortmund and Chief Conductor of Dortmund Philharmoniker with a five-year contract commencing in August 2025.

Return engagements of the 2023-24 season include performances of La bohème at the Canadian Opera Company, La traviata with Opéra de Montréal, and a program with The Philharmonia Orchestra in their Royal Festival Hall Series, following a very successful collaboration conducting Der Rosenkavalier at Garsington Opera in 2021.  Season highlights also include debuts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and at Santa Fe Opera conducting the world premiere of The Righteous, a new opera by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith in a production directed by Kevin Newbury.  Further ahead, he has secured return invitations from Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as the Glyndebourne Festival fortifying his place as one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation among the world’s great opera houses.

Highlights in his native Canada include two appearances with l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and concerts with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.  In the United States, Jordan de Souza has appeared at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival and has conducted new productions of Tristan und Isolde for Seattle Opera and Rigolettoat Houston Grand Opera.  European opera appearances include Die Zauberflöte at the Bayerische Staatsoper and Oper Köln, Carmen at Dutch National Opera, and Der fliegende Holländer at Nationaltheater Mannheim.  Last season he led La périchole at Theater an der Wien, a new production of La bohème at Glyndebourne Festival, and he made his Italian debut conducting the Orchestra della Toscana in a progam of Brahms and Mendelssohn.

Born in Toronto, Jordan de Souza studied conducting at McGill University, Montreal and made his conducting debut aged 20 leading Bach St John Passion.  Upon graduating, he joined the McGill University faculty from 2011 to 2015 and went on to conduct several important choral works including Bach St. Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and Mass in b minor, and the Verdi, Mozart, and Fauré Requiem. During this time, he also led three world premieres as Conductor in Residence of Tapestry Opera, the only Canadian company solely dedicated to creating and performing original Canadian opera.

He moved to Europe to join the staff of the Komische Oper Berlin and was First Kapellmeister completing a four-year term in 2020. During this tenure, Jordan de Souza collaborated closely with renowned director Barrie Kosky on four critically acclaimed new productions: Pelléas et Mélisande, La bohème, Weinberger’s Frühlingsstürme, and Candide and led numerous repertory revivals.

The artist now lives in Berlin with his wife and two young children.