CONDUCTOR

JONATHAN DE VRIES  is the Artistic Director of Canterbury Choral Society. For 20 years he has been a conductor and educator in New York City. He is also the Upper School Choral and Musical Theater Director at Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Mr. De Vries made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut in November 2017 leading Gustav Mahler’s choral-orchestral Eighth Symphony, and the world premiere of Bound for Glory by Rollo Dilworth. Previous Canterbury seasons under his baton have included such major works as: J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John’s Passion, Mass in B Minor, and Weihnachts-Oratorium; Handel’s Samson and Saul; Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah; Second Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington; Benjamin Britten’s cantata Saint Nicolas; major choral works by Ralph Vaughan Williams; and the 2018 revival of Oratorio di San Francesco by Adriano Adriani.

Mr. De Vries holds an MS in Music Education from Queen’s College, CUNY, and a BA in Vocal Performance and Conducting from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He studied conducting with David Xiques, Panni Kovács, James John, Howard Slenk, and Merle Mustert; completed levels I, II and III of the Kodály method at NYU Steinhardt Summer Institute; and trained at the International Kodály Seminar held at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary.