First Baptist Girl's Choir

Jeff Joudrey

Conductor Jeff Joudrey is highly regarded for his vision, musical leadership, and standards of excellence in choral music. Founder of the First Baptist Girls' Choir of Truro (1983) and Halifax Camerata Singers (1986), his leadership has provided challenging and rewarding choral opportunities for many Nova Scotia singers.

Over more than two decades his choirs have established enviable reputations for performance excellence and innovative programming. The First Baptist Girls' Choir has five recordings to its credit and has toured in England, Wales, The Netherlands, Iceland, Finland, Germany, and across Canada. In addition to promoting choral music throughout Nova Scotia, the Halifax Camerata Singers was awarded the Galaxie Rising Star Prize in the 2008 CBC Choral Competition and the choir's third CD, Songs of the Stable: Christmas Music From Canada, was nominated for two awards.

Jeff is an enthusiastic supporter of Canadian choral music, and frequently commissions works from both established and emerging Canadian composers for his choirs to premiere and perform. His other passion is working with young singers, and he was honoured by the invitation to conduct the Nova Scotia Youth Choir's 15th anniversary tour. Most recently he was invited to conduct at Montreal's McGill/CBC Youth Choir Festival and last July at Ottawa's Unisong Festival with a massed choir of 355 singers and the National Arts Centre Orchestra on July 1st.

In addition to being Director of Music at First Baptist Church, Truro, Jeff is Chorus Master of the Symphony Nova Scotia Chorus and is in demand as a guest conductor, choral clinician, teacher, and adjudicator. He has served on the faculties of Dalhousie and Acadia universities as well as the Nova Scotia Choral Federation's Institute of Choral Conducting. A former director of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors, he also is a former president of the Nova Scotia Choral Federation. He has served on juries for the Ontario Arts Council, the Juno and East Coast Music Awards, and the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors.

A native of Nova Scotia, Jeff studied organ at Acadia University and the Haarlem International Academy in The Netherlands before going to McGill University to study with organists John Grew and Raymond Daveluy. His choral mentors include Canadian conductors Elmer Iseler and Wayne Riddell, and German conductor Helmuth Rilling.