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Time:

Friday
December, 22, 2017
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Location:

Meeting Room W185

Clinician(s)

James Jordan

James Jordan

[email protected]

Conductor as Prism

Clinic Synopsis:

The art of conducting possesses many challenges for both performer and teacher. Using techniques developed at Oxford, James Jordan provides a new pedagogy for conductors that uses metaphor to address the most difficult aspects of conducting artistry to master. This session will introduce attendees to these new techniques that will help them improve their conducting and build stronger connections to their ensembles.

James Jordan - Biographical Information

GRAMMY-nominated conductor James Jordan is recognized and praised around the world as one of America’s preeminent conductors, writers, and innovators in choral music. He has written more than 35 books on all aspects of the choral art. He was described as a “visionary” by The Choral Journal, which cited his book Evoking Sound as a “must read.” He is professor and senior conductor at Westminster Choir College, where he also conducts the Westminster Schola Cantorum and the internationally acclaimed Westminster Williamson Voices. Dr. Jordan has studied with legendary conductors and scholars of the past 40 years, including Elaine Brown, Wilhelm Ehmann, Frauke Haasemann, Volker Hempfling, and renowned music psychologist Edwin Gordon. He has made two recordings of the music of James Whitbourn with the Westminster Williamson Voices on the Naxos label, which have garnered wide critical acclaim on both side of the Atlantic. His career and publications have been devoted to innovative educational changes in the choral art. His research and writings have shaped far-reaching changes in the philosophy of music teaching and learning, conducting pedagogy, and teaching rhythm applying Laban Effort/Shape to both music teaching and conducting pedagogy. In 2012, he received the Iorio Research Prize from Rider University. He has conducted more than 30 all-state choirs, and in 2009 was named to the choral panel for the National Endowment for the Arts. He serves as director of the Westminster Conducting Institute, one of the nation’s leading summer programs for the training and education of conductors. In the summer of 2013, he inaugurated, with co-director James Whitbourn, the Westminster Choral Institute at Oxford. Dr. Jordan was honored as a distinguished alumnus at both Susquehanna University and Temple University. He was awarded the distinguished Doctor of Music by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland in 2014 to honor his contributions to choral music throughout the world.

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