Jordan Randall Smith

Award-winning conductor Jordan Randall Smith is the Music Director of Symphony Number One (2019 Winner of the American Prize) and Visiting Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras at Susquehanna University. Smith was formerly the Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Dallas Festival of Modern Music, Gr. Assistant Conductor at Peabody Opera Theater, Assistant Conductor of the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, and Conductor of the Hopkins Concert Orchestra.

Smith was lauded for being “an attentive partner” by the Baltimore Sun. Jordan’s leadership of Mahler’s fourth symphony was praised by the Sun’s Tim Smith: “The third movement, in particular, was quite sensitively molded.” According to the Ft. Worth Music Examiner, Jordan, “drove an intensity in the air,” leading the festival’s ensemble in residence, Ars Nova Dallas, in performances of Schoenberg’s landmark Pierrot Lunaire.

More recently, Jordan has been involved with blossoming public and scholarly interest in composer Florence Price and is a Co-Founder and Creative Director of the International Florence Price Festival. He frequently writes about new Florence Price developments on his blog. Smith was named to the Executive Council for the Institute for Composer Diversity at SUNY-Fredonia in January 2020.

In 2016, Jordan was named a Baltimore Social Innovation Fellow for his work with Symphony Number One. He was the recipient of a Bruno Walter Fellowship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music where he joined the other fellows and the festival orchestra in concert.

An active promoter and performer of new music, Jordan has a discography that encompasses 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. Tim Smith wrote in The Baltimore Sun that “…Smith draws playing of considerable expressive character from the ensemble.” Jordan’s history of commissions spans over 50 world premieres, leading to Symphony Number One winning the 2019 American Prize for Professional Orchestras.

Jordan is also a student of early music, having formerly served as Apprentice Conductor of the Dallas Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus. 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 in Texas and the Mid-Atlantic.

Jordan is a trained percussionist, placing third in the 2003 Percussive Arts Society’s keyboard percussion (marimba) 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, a student of Gustav Meier, Marin Alsop, and Markand Thakar. He received a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting at Texas Tech University under Gary Lewis.

An enthusiastic advocate for classical music, Jordan was invited to give a TED Talk at TEDxMidatlantic 2017 and is regularly engaged to give clinics and presentations 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 the Music Educators Associations in Pennsylvania (PMEA), New Jersey (NJMEA), and Vermont (VMEA), as well as New Music DC. Jordan has also written as a contributor for Baltimore Magazine. More information is available at jordanrsmith.com

Jordan Randall Smith

Jordan Randall Smith

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