Conductors
Jordan R. Smith
Music and Artistic Director
Jordan R. Smith is a dedicated conductor with a history of critically acclaimed performances and recordings, award-winning seasons, and highly regarded collaborations spanning orchestral music to opera, and from professional chamber orchestras to middle school bands and orchestras to church choirs.
Jordan is an adjunct faculty member of the Graduate Program in Music at Messiah University, cover conductor for York Symphony Orchestra and American Youth Philharmonic, and he is completing his doctorate in conducting at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University where he studied with Marin Alsop. He most recently served as Interim Assistant Conductor with Allentown Symphony Orchestra.
Jordan has led over 50 world premieres, recorded four albums, spoken at TEDxMidatlantic and events across the country, and has written for national and international music journals, PMEA News, and Baltimore Magazine. He leads a professional consultancy and coaching practice for other working conductors called the Art of Rehearsal.
Jordan’s great passion is working with high school and college-age student musicians to pursue truth and beauty through the transformative power of orchestral music, with a history of music education leadership across the US. Jordan previously served on faculty at Susquehanna University, and he lives here in PA with his wife Erin and their two cats, Cookie and Elphaba.
More information is available at jordanrsmith.com.
In addition to serving as Artistic Director of the organization, Jordan is the Music Director and Conductor of Young People’s Philharmonic, our flagship full orchestra for high school students.
Rachel Galassi
Music Director and Conductor
Junior String Philharmonic
Rachel Galassi has been a violist and free lance musician in the northeast region of Pennsylvania for over 25 years. Ms. Galassi is currently the Orchestra Director and assistant Marching Director at North Pocono High School in Covington Township Pennsylvania, and earned her B.M in Music Education from Marywood University. While at Marywood University, Rachel studied viola with Sophie Till and was a featured performer with Marywood University’s String Ensemble. Ms. Galassi also attended Peabody Conservatory where she studied viola performance with Paul Coletti, and was previously a student of Evelyn Jacobs-Louise.
Rachel is the Music Director and Conductor of Junior String Philharmonic, our elite string orchestra for string musicians grades 5-9.
Cody Brown
Conductor
Presto Strings
Cody Brown is an exceptional music educator and conductor with 15 years experience as a public school orchestra educator and conductor. She is currently the orchestra director at Orefield Middle School in Parkland School District. Prior to her time at Parkland, she was a teacher, conductor and violinist working with premiere schools youth orchestras across Connecticut and New York. She began studying the violin in the greater Philadelphia area at the age of seven and earned her Bachelors in Music Education from Moravian University and Masters in Music Education from Boston University.
Cody is the Conductor of Presto Strings, our developing string orchestra for string musicians grades 3-7.
