Distinguished Saxophone Teacher Joins HAA!

We are delighted to welcome Jordan P. Smith, a distinguished young artist, to the

woodwind faculty of Hunterdon Academy of the Arts. Jordan is a New York based saxophonist and conductor. His teachers have included Dr. Paul Cohen, Dr. John Sampen and Kathleen Mitchell (saxophone), and Dr. William Silvester (conducting).

Later this month Jordan is graduating with a Master of Music degree in Saxophone Performance from Manhattan School of Music. He previously completed a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from The College of New Jersey, and as of this coming fall semester will be a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Classical Saxophone Performance at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, where he is studying with Dr. Paul Cohen. Jordan is currently on faculty at the French Woods Festival for the Performing Arts, teaching theory, conducting the saxophone ensemble, and saxophone lessons.

 

 

Jordan has extensive performance experience. In the summer of 2007, Jordan traveled to Corfu, Greece where he gave several performances of solo and chamber works, and premiered Evolutions by Marilyn Shrude for the Corfu Festival Saxophone Ensemble. He was winner of the 2006-2007 TCNJ Concerto Competition and later performed Tomasi's Ballade for Saxophone and Orchestra with the TCNJ Orchestra. Jordan was also a selected soloist for the 2008 NYSMF recital series and a featured soloist with the NYSMF saxophone ensemble. Recently he has performed multiple times with The New World Symphony, the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, the Brooklyn College Orchestra, and the French Woods Orchestra. Recent performance venues have included the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Peters Citigroup Center in NYC, Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center, the Professional Children's School, Yale University, and the 2009 North American Saxophone Alliance Region 8 conference at West Virginia University. As an orchestral player he has performed works by Prokofiev, Copland, Bernstein, Gershwin, and more under such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Spano, and H. Robert Reynolds. Jordan has also been active as a chamber musician in New York City, having premiered works by composers such as Hayes Biggs, Remy Le Boeuf, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, and Matthew Hough. He recently premiered the Sonata for Tenor Saxophone and Piano by Steve Cohen written for Jordan himself, a saxophone quartet work entitled PollyPiano by Tamara Cashour, and a work for tenor saxophone entitled Reverie, Interrupted written for Jordan himself by composer/pianist James Adler. Jordan will soon be heard on Carrier Records for the premiere recording of Inhyun Kim's Saxophone Quartet.