Composition & Performance
As a composer and violinist, Jordan’s music has been described as “stirring and poignant” (AllAboutJazz), “a vibrant, imaginative composition… rapturous” (Textura). He has composed for an array of ensembles and debuted compositions at New York venues such as National Sawdust. Recent commissions include Transitions: an audio/visual installation, staged at Brooklyn Army Terminal (New York, August 14th-September 5th, 2021); an original score for INTRALIA, produced by inVersion Theatre Company (New York, 2020); BLUEPRINT (New York, Boston, 2019), featuring full orchestra and spontaneous ballet in a New York premiere with subsequent performances at Boston Ballet’s BB@home series; and How to Listen to Machines (2017), a composition that weaves melodies through the rhythms and overtones of machine sounds recorded by collaborators worldwide. Describing INTRALIA, music magazine Interludes says, “Of standout note is the work of [the] composer… in establishing the transporting quality.” Describing How to Listen to Machines, which debuted at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, TheaterScene.net called it “a full-throated, emotional musical declaration,” while A Closer Listen noted that he “receives the mechanical noises as gifts, and returns the gifts with his [violin] bow.”
Trained on violin in both classical and jazz, Jordan has headlined as violin soloist in major venues throughout the US and Europe, including Orchestral Hall (Mpls), Liszt Academy Hall (Budapest), and Ordway Theatre (St. Paul). His violin performance highlights include solos with major orchestras, such as a debut at age thirteen with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a series of solo violin performances with the Minnesota Orchestra; performances by personal invitation of a former US President and First Lady; a performance at the Kennedy Center for the opening of a James Wyeth exhibition; concerts with jazz legends Kenny Barron, Regina Carter, Paquito D’Rivera, and Giovanni Hidalgo; and TV and radio broadcasts.
Jordan was a Stradivari Society Rare Instrument recipient of a 16th-century Gasparo De Salo violin, and has won competitions that include the Thursday Musical Competition (First Prize, 2001), Minnesota String & Orchestra Teachers Association Competition (Grand Prize, 2000/01), Young People’s Symphony Concert Association (Grand Prize, 2000), Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony Concerto Competition (1998-99), The Schubert Club Competition String Division (Grand Prize, 1998), Minnesota Sinfonia Young Artist Competition (Grand Prize, 1997) and University of St. Thomas Young Artist Competition (Grand Prize, 1997). As a violinist, Jordan has been awarded the Maud Taylor Hill Award (1998), Edwin W. and Edith B. Norberg Trust Award (2000), and Claire Givens Violins Award (1997).
Academic Research & Publications
Jordan Hall graduated Magna Cum Laude and as a Phi Beta Kappa Honors Scholar from New York University, where he went on to earn two Masters Degrees and a PhD. As a scholar, Hall researches primarily British literature, with a focus on sound studies and the emergence of modern listening practices in the Enlightenment. Peer-reviewed academic publications include articles in Literature Compass (Wiley) and Eighteenth-Century Theory & Interpretation (University of Pennsylvania Press). He has presented research at literary, historical, and musicology conferences, and his dissertation, Sound Judgment, is the first book-length study of music criticism as a literary genre. As a Polonsky Foundation Digital Humanities Scholar, Jordan Hall also designed and launched The Music Criticism Guide, the first resource of its kind, sponsored by the Polonsky-Brine Foundation, Global Research Initiatives, Fales Library & Special Collections, the Henry Mitchell MacCracken Fellowship, and Halsband Fellowship.
Nonprofit Management Experience
As Program Manager for Social Enterprise at Harvard Business School Club of New York, Jordan Hall managed Community Partners, the largest pro bono consulting program of the Harvard Business School alumni community worldwide, comprised of several hundred Harvard MBA volunteers each year. During his tenure as the sole employee of the program, he helped Community Partners to deliver $350 million in pro bono consulting services each year, as well as increase its nonprofit client applicants by 59%, volunteer base by 50%, scholarship awards by 43%, and annually completed projects for nonprofit clients by 29%.