Jonathan Girard

Wall Scholar

Title

Associate Professor

Department/School

School of Music

Faculty

Arts

University

UBC

Geographic Location

Unites States
Jonathan Girard

Dr. Jonathan Girard is the Director of Orchestras and Associate Professor of Conducting and Ensembles at the UBC School of Music.

His interests include the integration of technology with conducting pedagogy and orchestral training, and spatial considerations in 19th century orchestral repertoire. Recently he has focused on creating interdisciplinary concert experiences for audience and orchestral students alike. He has collaborated with Jaymie Matthews (Astrophysics) on Holst’s The Planets, Alex Fisher (Musicology) in a discussion of painter Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece for a performance of Hindemith’s Mathis der Mahler, and most recently with Sylvia L’Ecuyer (Radio Canada) to weave a story from the stage with excerpts from Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

His international conducting profile includes directing a recent production of Le nozze di Figaro (Czech), leading the 2017 Marrowstone Festival Orchestra (USA), and an upcoming guest engagement with the orchestra in Porto Allegre (Brazil). He created the MMus degree in Orchestral Conducting in 2015 and has launched the inaugural UBC Chamber Orchestra Festival, in partnership with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Institute at Whistler. A champion of new music, he works closely with British Columbian composers Dorothy Chang, Stephen Chatman, and Keith Hamel. He recorded Stephen Chatman’s Choir Practice and Magnificat for Orchestra and Choir (nominated for a 2014 Juno Award). Previous positions include posts with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Portland Opera Repertory Theatre.

 

 

Primary Recipient Awards

Jonathan Girard – Wall Scholars – 2018

Dr. Girard will work on a graphical score for orchestra and has plans to commission new orchestral works that explore sonic expressions of climate change.

Co-Principal Investigator Awards

Chris Chafe – International Visiting Research Scholars – 2019