JORDAN DE SOUZA LAUGHS UPON hearing he’s a prime example of positive leadership within the classical world. “I don’t know about that!” he says, chuckling, “but I do know that conducting makes you very aware of having to wear many different hats.” The busy conductor, speaking from his home in Germany, may be displaying the sort of humility tied to his home and native land, but it comes with bundles of energy, intelligence, and passion. De Souza’s ‘hats’ have included a four-year stint as Kapellmeister with the Komische Oper Berlin (KOB), a position he identifies as central to preparing him for his new position as General Music Director of the City of Dortmund, a position which will entail his leading the Opernhaus Dortmund and the Dortmunder Philharmoniker as their Chief Conductor. The position is set to begin in August 2025.
It’s an incredible journey for someone not yet 40 years old, although de Souza has a palpable wisdom belying his years. His journey began in Toronto, where he attended St. Michael’s Choir School (a semi-private Roman Catholic boys’ school in Toronto) before going on to study conducting at McGill University,. De Souza joined the McGill faculty for four years (2011-2015) and went on to conduct other famous choral works, including Verdi’s and Bach’s immense . He has gone on to work with Houston Grand Opera, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, and the Glyndebourne, Bregenz, and Garsington Festivals, Dutch National Opera, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Seattle Opera, and Lyric Opera Chicago, as well as Canadian institutions like Opéra de Montréal, the National Ballet of Canada, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the Canadian Opera Company. He also served as Conductor-in-Residence with contemporary-focused Tapestry Opera, where he led three world premieres. His four years as First Kapellmeister with Komische Oper (2017-2020) provided an up-close look at all the moving parts of an opera house and the ways those parts come together. Among the wide variety of works De Souza led on the stage of the Behrenstaße theatre were French romantic works (including ), verismo (), and operettas, including Bernstein’s Candide and Jaromír Weinberger’s , all of which were done with famed director and ex-KOB Intendant Barrie Kosky.
