Jordan Kuspa’s music has been praised in the New York Times as “animated and melodically opulent” and “consistently alive and inspired.” His works juxtapose a bristling rhythmic drive with expansive textures and sinuously interwoven counterpoint. Explorative and eclectic, Kuspa’s music encompasses intricate motivic developments, carefully-wrought formal structures, and unexpected detours of wit and whimsy.

 

His compositions have been performed by ensembles such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, New World Symphony, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, Yale Camerata, 21st Century Consort, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Choral Arts Initiative, Ensemble SurPlus, Quartetto Indaco, Quartet Metadata, loadbang, Sandbox Percussion, and Trio Fibonacci, in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Oper Leipzig, and he has been a composition fellow at programs including the Aspen Music Festival, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Intimacy of Creativity, June in Buffalo, and MusicX. Kuspa’s music has won honors from ASCAP, the American Composers Orchestra, the Foundation for Modern Music, the Garth Newel Music Center, the Lake George Music Festival, the League of Composers, and the National Association of Composers–USA.

 

Kuspa is the Founding Director of the Del Mar International Composers Symposium, which presents a week-long new music festival to encourage the sharing of new musical ideas between composers, performers, and the community in Del Mar, California. Kuspa's commitment to building community through musical expression is a longstanding feature of his creative work. At age 16, Kuspa founded the Houston Young Musicians, a group that sought to broaden interest in classical music among new listeners as well as promote the works of American and other contemporary composers. He was also co-founder and Artistic Director of the Sonus Chamber Music Society, an organization that presented an interactive concert series in the Houston museum district. Kuspa continued his community engagement work in schools across Connecticut as an artist teacher in the Yale Music in Schools program, leading projects that included interdisciplinary collaborations with students in writing, drama, filmmaking, and visual arts. He currently is a Teaching Artist for the San Diego Youth Symphony's Community Opus program in Chula Vista.

 

Kuspa earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music and also studied at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. From 2012-2017 he served on the faculty of Richland College in Dallas, where he taught composition, music theory, and cello, and directed the Richland String Orchestra. Kuspa is currently adjunct faculty at MiraCosta College and has also served as Composer-in-Residence with 

Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet.