Biography

recipient of the Priddy Fellowship in Arts Leadership, the Reinhard Mohn Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship, and recently named to the inaugural class of Abreu Fellows at the New England Conservatory, JONATHAN ANDREW GOVIAS is highly accomplished on the podium and well beyond it. Appointed music director of a professional orchestra at the age of 22, he has since earned a Doctorate in orchestral conducting and performed with orchestras on four continents, including a June 2009 debut with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. This performance was part of a remarkable summer in which he was the only individual selected out of some combined 250 applicants to attend the three most selective workshops in North America, at the invitation of conductors Kurt Masur, Kenneth Kiesler, Gustav Meier and Marin Alsop.

Beyond his extensive conducting activities, Jonathan has actively changed the way people consider classical music and its role in their lives. Long before El Sistema became well-known, he connected orchestral music with social impact in a way that brought him great fulfillment and uncommon recognition, receiving three major fellowships for his success in developing orchestras and communities symbiotically and sustainably in cities around the world.

Profoundly influenced as a conductor by maestros Janos Sandor (University of Victoria), Gustav Meier (Peabody), Kenneth Kiesler (University of Michigan) and Jorma Panula (Royal Stockholm Academy), Jonathan remains active outside of conducting, writing on diverse topics such as music education, music as an agent of social change, performance practice, and economics in his spare time.