Conductor
JONATHAN DE VRIES
Jonathan De Vries is the Artistic Director and Conductor of The Canterbury Choral Society. The 2025-2026 season marks his eighteenth year of collaboration with the Canterbury Choral Society and the eleventh season as Artistic Director. Mr. De Vries is known as an “emotionally expressive and technically precise conductor”. His style moves audiences to hear and feel the composers’ music through his gestures and presence. Every season of Canterbury's performances are an eclectic mix of presenting the choral masterworks of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, infused with music from the greatest composers of the 20th Century. His conducting style influences the audience to hear and feel the composers’ music through his gestures and presence. Mr. De Vries also teaches and guides the next generation of musicians. He serves as the Upper School Choral and Musical Theater Director at Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich, Connecticut. Whether leading high school choirs or collaborating with professional ensembles, Mr. De Vries inspires musicians with passion and a deep commitment to musical excellence.
In November 2017, Mr. De Vries made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut leading Gustav Mahler’s choral-orchestral Eighth Symphony (his monumental “Symphony of a Thousand”) and the world premiere of Bound for Glory by Rollo Dilworth, which included a youth choir made up of 350 students from 9 different choirs. Previous Canterbury seasons under his baton have included such major works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Duruflé, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Poulenc, Schubert, Vaughan Williams; and the 2018 revival of Oratorio di San Francesco by Adriano Adriani. All told, he has conducted 35 major oratorios and orchestral works with Canterbury.
As an educator for 21 years he has taught all ages from Early Childhood through Collegiate, including 13 years at St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School, 15 years at St. Michael’s Church, and currently 7 years at Greenwich Country Day School. In that time he has led students in pageants, musicals, and operas. He has led ensembles in NYC, nationally, and internationally, performing at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, St. John the Divine, and on tour at Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, Westminster Abbey, and Notre Dame de Paris. His students have also had the opportunities to perform with incredible artists like Pete Seeger and Rollo Dilworth.
Mr. De Vries studied the Kodály method, music theory and ear training at NYU Steinhardt and at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary. He has done extensive studies of composers through research grants in Italy and Austria, including Puccini, Ariani, Mahler and Mozart. He holds a B.A. in Conducting and Voice from Calvin University and a M.S. in Education from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queen’s College, CUNY.