AWARD-WINNING CONDUCTOR JORDAN RANDALL SMITH BELIEVES IN MUSIC'S TRANSCENDENT POWER TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER, TO CHALLENGE, AND TO UPLIFT THE HUMAN SPIRIT.
Jordan's leadership of Mahler's Fourth Symphony was praised by the Baltimore Sun's Tim Smith: "The third movement, in particular, was quite sensitively molded." Jordan was the recipient of a prestigious Bruno Walter Fellowship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. He currently serves on the faculty of Messiah University and as Music Director of the award-winning Symphony Number One.
Jordan believes in the power of community, volunteerism, and gift through music. He has served as Assistant Conductor of the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Hopkins Concert Orchestra, where he developed and led new musical initiatives and partnerships across Baltimore. He also has an established history as a successful church music director and professional chorister and singer. He was named a Baltimore Social Innovation Fellow for his community work with Symphony Number One.
Smith has mentored hundreds of young musicians in ensembles across the country including the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, Cross Timbers Youth Orchestra, and the Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra, with invitations to conduct All-Region and All-County Orchestras across the US. He is also a frequent invited speaker and clinician to other conductors and music educators at national and regional conferences.
An ardent supporter of diversity in concert programming, Smith co-founded the International Florence Price Festival where he served as a Creative Director for four years. He also serves on the Executive Council for the Institute for Composer Diversity at SUNY-Fredonia. Jordan received grants from Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy on three occasions with three different orchestras for his commitment to programming the music of women composers.
As an active promoter and performer of new music, Jordan has a discography spanning four critically-acclaimed commercial releases. “Conductor Jordan Randall Smith whips up a fine head of urgency, as the music veers from gesture to near-primal cry,” said Colin Clarke about Symphony Number One's More from 2016. Jordan's history of commissions spans over 50 world premieres.
He previously served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras at Susquehanna University and was the Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Dallas Festival of Modern Music, Gr. Assistant Conductor at Peabody Opera Theater. Jordan is also a student of early music, having formerly served as Apprentice Conductor of and Tenor with the Dallas Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus.
Jordan was invited to give a TED Talk at TEDxMidatlantic 2017 and regularly speaks with groups across the country. Recent presentations have included talks and panels at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME - Eastern Division), The College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA), the International Conductors Guild, and numerous state and local events as well as universities and public schools. Jordan has also written as a contributor for Baltimore Magazine and contributed peer-reviewed scholarship to prominent music journals.
Jordan is a trained percussionist, placing third in the 2003 Percussive Arts Society's Keyboard Percussion Competition. Smith remains active in the percussion community and in the commissioning of new works for marimba. Smith pursues a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting at the Peabody Conservatory - Johns Hopkins University, where he is a student of Marin Alsop and the inaugural recipient of a unique scholarship.