But this week’s Minnesota Orchestra concerts are a celebration of Bach that goes from intimate to expansive. Nine works are on the program, seven of them by Bach and two inspired by his music. If it’s an authentic 1700s sound you seek, go catch a concert by Lyra Baroque or the Bach Society of Minnesota. In the orchestra’s performance, Bach’s music is seen through a 20th- and 21st-century lens, his music rearranged under the influence of romanticism and adventurous instrumentation. It added up to something tremendously rewarding at Thursday’s midday concert at Minneapolis’ Orchestra Hall. Led with a balance of grace and gravitas by Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza, the concert blended respect for the composer and imaginative explorations of what he might have done with an orchestra of almost 100 musicians at his disposal…The concert’s first half focused on what happens when Bach’s music meets a mandolin. The second half was about what happens when it’s unleashed by a full orchestra. After a modernist collage by American composer Betsy Jolas (“Letters From Bachville”), three works originally written for organ were heard in the orchestrations of Edward Elgar, Leopold Stokowski and former Minnesota Orchestra music director Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. The latter’s version of the popular Toccata and Fugue in D Minor helped open Orchestra Hall in 1974, and Thursday’s performance served as a reminder of what a masterful orchestrator the maestro was. Each collection of instruments did its best imitation of a set of organ pipes. The performance was as much of an adrenaline rush as Gustav Mahler’s arrangements of Bach orchestral suites were rapturously beautiful.
Minnesota Star Tribue, Rob Hubbard
Making his company debut in the pit, Jordan de Souza presided impressively over Spears’s often gorgeous score.
Opera News, David Shengold
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Discography
Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza has been appointed General Music Director of Theater Dortmund and Chief Conductor of Dortmund Philharmoniker with a five-year contract commencing in August 2025.
Jordan de Souza’s standing as one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation is reflected by a varied and dynamic schedule appearing with many of the world’s great opera houses, symphony orchestras, and festivals. During the 2024-25 season, he leads a new production of Don Carlo at the Royal Danish Opera and return engagements bring him to Deutsche Oper Berlin for Turandot, to Lyric Opera of Chicago and Komische Oper Berlin for La bohème, and Deutsche Oper am Rhein for Carmen. He makes a Minnesota Orchestra debut leading concerts that reimagine Bach pieces for larger symphonic forces and include mandolin superstar Avi Avital.
Return engagements of the 2023-24 season included 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. Featured highlights of the season also included debuts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the world premiere of The Righteous, a new opera by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith at the Santa Fe Opera.
In his native Canada, Jordan de Souza has helmed multiple programs on the podium of Orchestre symphonique de Montréal as well as concerts with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In the United States, he has appeared at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival and has conducted new productions of Tristan und Isolde for Seattle Opera and Rigoletto at 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 made his Italian debut conducting the Orchestra della Toscana in a progam of Brahms and Mendelssohn.
Born in Toronto and of Goan heritage, 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’s St. Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B minor, as well as 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.
London Symphony Orchestra: Martial Sauvé's Symphony No. 3
National Arts Centre Orchestra, Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, "Pathétique"
Dutch National Opera, Carmen
Komische Oper Berlin, Pelléas et Mélisande
Musical Insights: Der Rosenkavalier, "Di rigori armato" (Italian Tenor)
Contact
General Management
Bill Palant, Étude Arts
Ansonia Station,Post Office Box 230132
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Tel: 929.777.0775
Email: [email protected]