Jeordano Martínez

Jeordano Martínez – Music Director

Jeordano Martínez served as director of choral activities at North Central College from 1987 until his retirement in June of 2013 when he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus. Shortly after his arrival at the college, he reorganized the Concert Choir and introduced instrumental music and music education, thus enabling the department to began its explosive growth. Jeordano Martínez has been recognized multiple times by North Central College with two Dissinger awards for excellence in teaching, the Fine Arts Medal, and the First Citizen of the College Award. At the college he also directed the Opera Workshop and taught courses in music history and literature. He continues in his position as music director of the Naperville Chorus, which has grown to its present size of 120 singers.  Martínez has fostered joint performances with many area groups, including the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Bar Association Orchestra and Chorus, the Elgin Symphony, The Young Naperville Singers, and the Pete Ellman Band.  He has also led the group on concert tours to Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Austria, and the Czech Republic, and toured to Italy with the North Central Concert Choir which included performances at St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Mark’s in Venice.

Martínez is a graduate of Baylor University and Southern Illinois University with majors in music history and literature, and has done post graduate work at the University of Iowa and Northwestern University in choral and orchestral conducting.. He studied opera production with famed Metropolitan star Marjorie Lawrence, orchestral conducting with Irwin Hoffmann and James Dixon, and choral conducting with Donald Moses and the late Margaret Hillis,  whom he assisted during her tenure with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Besides his Naperville appearances, Martínez has conducted performances at the Woodstock Opera House, The Rialto Theater in Joliet, and Hemmens Auditorium in Elgin. He is a former music director of the Liberty-Fremont Concert Society, Fox Valley Festival Chorus, Hinsdale Opera Chorus, and the Elgin Area Youth Orchestra. He has frequently been engaged as a choral adjudicator and clinician throughout the Midwest, Canada and Costa Rica.

Jeordano Martínez can be contacted by e-mail at MusicDirector@NapervilleChorus.org.