Philippe Jordan was something of a prodigy, holding conducting posts from age 20 and leading major operatic productions by his early thirties. He also conducts orchestral music and performs as a pianist. Jordan was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on October 18, 1974. His father, Armin Jordan, was a conductor, and his mother, Käthe Herkner, was a dancer. Philippe studied piano, voice, and violin as a youth, gaining valuable experience as a member of the Zürcher Sängerknaben ("Zurich Boys' Choir"). At 16, he entered the Zurich Conservatory, studying conducting, piano, music theory, and composition. When Jordan was 20, he became first kapellmeister at the Ulm Stadttheater in West Germany. He also served as an assistant to Jeffrey Tate, who conducted at various houses in Paris, and later to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. In 2003, Jordan made his recording debut on a BBC production of Bizet's Carmen. By that time, Jordan was a familiar figure at opera houses in several countries. In 1995, he appeared at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. He served as principal conductor in a dual position with the Graz Opera and Symphony Orchestra in Austria from 2001 to 2004 and made his debut at the Houston Grand Opera during the 2001-2002 season, conducting Saint-Saëns' opera Samson et Dalila. While still in his twenties, Jordan made his debuts at such major houses as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at Covent Garden and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in Britain. He became music director of the Opéra National de Paris in 2009 as the youngest conductor ever to hold the post. He remained there until 2021, also serving in other major positions, such as conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (from 2014 to 2021) and the Vienna State Opera (from 2020 to 2025). Jordan has made operatic recordings by a variety of composers with the Opéra National de Paris and other companies, and he also issued a complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies with the Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris and another with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in the late 2010s. By 2024, when Jordan conducted a recording of Wagner's Parsifal with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, his recording catalog comprised some 30 items. ~ James Manheim, Rovi