Choral Conductor & Music Educator
Elevate your choir with expert conducting and joy-filled connection
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About Dr. Jordan Cox
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Choral Conducting Expertise
As a seasoned choral conductor, I specialize in guiding choirs of all ages to sing freely, joyfully, and artistically. My approach emphasizes strategic rehearsals to cultivate connection for singers and audience alike.
Selected Honor Choirs & Presentations
Georgia All-State Elementary Honor Choir Clinician, 2024
International Society of Music Education Presenter, 2026
Southwestern American Choral Directors Association Presenter, 2024
9-10 South Central District Honor Choir Clinician, 2025
MBU Chamber Singers - Demonstration Choir for Dan Forrest, Breakout session at Getty Sing Conference, 2017
St. Louis UCC Choir Festival Clinician, 2019
Rockwood School District Music Teacher Professional Development, 2024
Biography & Headshots
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Book Dr. Cox for your next honor choir or festival choir!
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Dr. Jordan L Cox
Projects
And He Shall Reign
Handel’s Messiah is considered one of the greatest choral masterpieces of all time. Countless school, community, and church choirs perform portions of this work every year. The music, in collaboration with the scriptural texts, creates a spiritual experience that brings to life the prophecy, passion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In He Shall Reign: Reflections on Handel’s Messiah, Dr. Jordan Cox provides the reader an opportunity to listen, reflect, and respond to the scriptures set to Handel’s iconic masterwork. Based on his dissertation research, Cox suggests that spiritual experiences cannot be created, but an atmosphere can be cultivated in which spiritual experiences may occur. These spiritual experiences often take place when there are elements of connection at play, one of which is connection to the text.
In eight Advent devotions and twelve Lenten devotions, Cox provides five-minute readings to reflect on the text and theology of Handel’s Messiah. Whether you are a choral director, singer, or avid listener of choral music, these devotions will deepen your engagement with this work and develop connections to these scriptures that will stir your soul spiritually, musically, and theologically.
Dr. Cox's book can be purchased at Westbow Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
Exploring Power in Music, Spirituality, and Well-Being
In "Exploring Power in Music, Spirituality, and Well-Being: Autoethnographies Volume II" edited by Van der Merwe, Boyce-Tillman, Jerling, Oralandi, and Joubert, Dr. Cox co-authored Chamber 3 with Maria A. Ellis.
“How do you know this song?” This question posed by a black woman in her 40’s to a white man in his 30’s signaled a dialogue about church music that would not only bring unity to two vastly diverse church cultures but would spark comraderie in their individual callings to lead others in song and praise. Both music educators and church musicians, one was raised in the apostolic Pentecostal church tradition while the other grew up with the southern gospel quartets and revivalistic hymnody of the Southern Baptist Convention. But somewhere in the overlapping of these traditions is a common language that inspired these two musicians to pursue a life of sacred music exploration in both sacred and secular environments. To better understand the juxtaposition of these two diverse musicians and make sense of their lived experience, they engaged in a research study through duoethnography (Norris, 2008), a form of autoethnographic research. According to Norris, Sawyer, and Lund (2012), “Duoethnography is a collaborative research methodology in which two or more researchers of difference juxtapose their life histories to provide multiple understandings of the world.” While one goal of the study was to learn from one another (Barber, 1989), the other was to engage in dialogic storytelling to better understand what elements of their church music upbringing contributed to their current approaches to music education, church music, and leadership. (Reason and Hawkins, 1988).
This book can be purchased at Peter Lang or on Amazon.
Why Do We Sing?
Finding Peace Through Spiritual Experiences in Choral Music Making
Dr. Jordan Cox served as Music in Worship Repertoire and Resource Chair for 2023-2025 and 2025-2027.
Published in the Missouri Choral Directors Association's Spring 2025 publication Opus. Read this article by Dr. Cox entitled "Why Do We Sing?"
Finding Peace Through Spiritual Experiences in Choral Music Making
Finding Peace Through Spiritual Experiences in Choral Music Making
Dr. Jordan Cox served as Music in Worship Repertoire and Resource Chair for 2023-2025 and 2025-2027.
Published in the Missouri Choral Directors Association's Fall 2023 publication of Opus. Read this article by Dr. Cox entitled "Finding Peace Through Spiritual Experiences in Choral Music Making."
2024 Georgia All-State Elementary Honor Choir Conductor
In 2023, Dr. Cox was an invited All-State conductor alongside Kay Pace. Click the program cover to read about this choir and the literature selections.
Score Study to Rehearsal Plan
Presented at the Arkansas American Choral Directors Association Summer 2020 Conference.
Presented at the Missouri Choral Directors Association 2023 Summer Conference.
Presented to the Wentzville School District and Rockwood School District as Professional Development in 2024.
Reflecting on the practice of master conductors from our rich choral heritage, we will revisit (or learn for the first time) a color-coded score study practice that is fun and engaging for singers and directors alike! Through our colorful exploration, you will develop a well-designed rehearsal plan that will take your choirs to new horizons of music making! Colored pencils provided!
Rehearsal By Design
Presented at the Southwest American Choral Directors Association Regional Conference in Denver, Colorado in 2024.
Presdented to the Wentzville School District. and Rockwood School District for Professional Development in 2024.
Presented to the East Central Regional District for Professional Development in 2023.
Many of us have encountered a season in which we find ourselves bored with our rehearsals. In this session, my hope is to breathe life into your rehearsals as you consider the limitless possibilities that await your singers! Reflecting on Wiggins and McTighe's theory of Backward Design, you will be introduced to a method of literature selection that encourages diversity and energy in your rehearsals. Learning a variety of activities and strategies that pair well with our approach to literature selection, you will leave inspired with a plan that will help you meet your goals in the upcoming concert season!
S.O.S. - The Pedagogy and Teaching of Vocal Pedagogy Through Choral Literature
Presented to the Wentzville School District 2017 Professional Development.
“A teacher must develop first consciousness, second memory and tools, and thirdly, expectation.”[1]This quote by French composer, conductor, and educator, Nadia Boulanger, inspires teachers to combine the science of teaching, established vocal techniques, with the art of teaching, through developing awareness and expectation of our students. This sentiment is particularly true in choral conducting, when we assess our ensemble and use the techniques and tools of choral singing to raise expectations and sing expressively. As choral conductors, we do this through the science and art of singing. Although many choral directors have training in choral methods and techniques, and years of experience singing in a choir, I have heard many secondary school choir directors discuss their desire to grow in their knowledge of vocal pedagogy. But are choral directors really lacking in knowledge about posture, breath, and phonation or is there merely a lack of confidence in the diagnosis and treatment of vocal technique? There are numerous resources to aid in addressing vocal technique. Group Vocal Techniqueby Frauke Haasemann and James Jordan, The Perfect Blend by Timothy Seelig, and The Complete Choral Warm-Up Book by Russell Robinson and Jay Althouse all provide excellent strategies for purposeful warm-ups that help instruct vocal technique. Directors can pick up one of many available resources, turn to ‘posture’, for instance, and find a wealth of ideas to address proper singing posture. It is my desire that through the S.O.S. method (select appropriate literature, observe the score, and strategies to teach), directors will find help to diagnosis potential errors in vocal technique through score study and can plan a treatment for these issues before bad habits and vocal errors arise.
[1] Don G. Campbell, Master Teacher, Nadia Boulanger (Binghamton, NY: Pastoral Press, 1984), 68.
Transcending the Technical
Presented to the International Network for Music, Spirituality, and Well-Being Conference in South Africa in 2024.
Dissertation Research presented to East Central MMEA in 2021.
Many music educators enter the field of professional music making because of powerful experiences that transcend the technical aspects involved in rehearsal and performance.
In the United States, there is great turmoil in the public school system when discussing topics of spirituality because of the controversy of religion in the public square. However, the American Choral Directors Association seeks to “foster and promote choral singing that will provide artistic, cultural, and spiritual experiences for all” (www.ACDA.org/about-us).
To better understand these spiritual experiences in both religious and non-religious settings in choral music making, Dr. Jordan Cox interviewed public high school choral directors in the Midwest region of the United States who had experienced the phenomenon of
spirituality in the non- religious public high school setting. Through these interviews, Dr. Cox found that spiritual experiences are often experienced and cultivated through various forms of connection, between different groups of people and the music. Based on these
data from public high school choral rehearsals and performances, we will discuss the implications of cultivating an atmosphere conducive to these spiritual experiences. Reflective
of Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow Theory” and Van der Merwe & Habron’s “Conceptual Model of Spirituality in Education,” we will engage in our own reflection of spiritual experiences through guided questions. Practical teaching strategies and choral literature that may invite spiritual
experiences in religious and non-religious musical settings will be shared. As a group we will grow in our own understanding of spirituality to promote more of these powerful experiences
that drew us to the field of music in the first place.
Let it Shine Bright!
MBU Choral Department's 2020 Christmas Worship Album.
In 2020, we were unable to produce a traditional Christmas concert - so we made a worship album! Donations from this project allowed us to launch the MBU Choral Endowment! When you give, funds will support choral projects at MBU!
Bright and Glorious
MBU Choral Department's 2024 Easter EP.
When seniors who were graduating were asked what projects they might like to take part in their final year, the seniors who were freshmen on our first album asked for a second recording project. So we headed down to Nashville and produced our second album.
Masterworks
Every semester, the MBU Choral Department under the baton of Dr. Jordan Cox performs major and minor masterworks.
2016-2017:
"Magnificat". -Rutter
"Chichester Psalms" - Bernstein
2017-2018:
"Messiah" - Handel
"St. Matthew Passion" - Bach (Double Chorus)
2018-2019:
"Fantasia on Christmas Carols". -Ralph Vaughan Williams
"Jubilate Deo" - Dan Forrest
2019-2020:
"Gloria" - Rutter
"Nelson Mass" - Haydn (cancelled)
2020-2021:
"Requiem" - Fauré
"Songs of Faith" - Paul Basler
2021-2022:
"Messiah" - Handel
2022-2023:
"St. Nicholas" - Benjamin Britten
"Nelson Mass" - Haydn
"Gospel Mass" - Robert Ray
"St. Matthew Passion" - Bach (Double Chorus)
2023-2024:
"Gloria" - Vivaldi
"Requiem for the Living" - Dan Forrest
2024-2025:
"Illuminare" - Elaine Hagenberg
"Requiem" - Mozart
2025-2026:
"Messiah" - Handel
2026-2027:
"Lux" - Dan Forrest
"Requiem" - Brahms