When he isn’t leading Brown students in song, he can be found playing the organ for the historic Trinity Church in Newport, directing the Schola Cantorum of Boston, a Renaissance choir he founded, or toting his harpsichord in his trusty Subaru to perform concerts with a Baroque orchestra.

As he prepared to conclude his three-decade tenure this month, Jodry reflected on the high notes of his career.

Q: What brought you to Brown 33 years ago?

I grew up in Ohio and came to the East Coast to study music at the New England Conservatory, and I never went home. I had a particularly strong interest in Renaissance and Baroque music, and I was pursuing a career as a church musician and a singer and a conductor. In 1990, I brought my professional chamber choir to Providence, and one of the musicologists at Brown heard my group. Later that year, when they needed to hire a choir director on short notice he said, “Oh, get that guy.” I had not thought about a career in academia, but I decided to devote two nights a week to come try this choir. And 33 years later, that was clearly a good idea!

Q: What has been your favorite aspect of leading the chorus?

It’s been a privilege — what amazing talent Brown students have had. And it is really, really gratifying to see the ones that have gone on to careers in music. We’ve had maybe a dozen alumni go on to become professional choral singers, oratorio soloists and college choir directors.

Q: What’s special about the Brown University Chorus?

There’s a lot of history. It’s one of the oldest performing groups on campus — close to 150 years old. It’s also a really good way for undergraduate students to associate with people outside their major and outside their year, so the chorus is always a mix of students from all four years with a handful of graduate students, and very occasionally a staff or faculty member.

Q: Which international tours were most memorable for you?

The first trip was the most exotic, a week each in Greece, Egypt and Israel. We called it the old stones tour because everywhere you went, you looked at stone ruins. It was just such a varied selection of places, each with its own character and history and religion. Croatia might be my favorite place we went. Some of the stone churches in Croatia were bliss to sing in. Our final concert in Croatia was in an amazing basilica at the top of a hill looking out on the sea. And as we were singing, I could see the choir was getting a little distracted. And it turns out a huge thunderstorm was brewing, and they could see lightning through open church doors. The bus was at the very bottom of the hill in this village, so when the concert was over, we all ran down the hill in the pouring rain. 

The tours are always an amazing experience because it provides real camaraderie, traveling on a bus for several weeks and giving multiple concerts in a short period of time. A number of graduates have come back and said to me, “You know, that tour was the highlight of my time at Brown.” 

Q: How has the music landscape at Brown evolved during your tenure?

The whole music department has grown enormously over 30 years in terms of the number of majors and the number of faculty. Brown is just a different demographic than it was 30 years ago — it was more homogeneous and now it’s much more representative of the country at large. The quality of singers and the people who come with a serious musical background — having sung a lot in high school, through wonderful youth choirs and sometimes children's choirs at cathedrals with super intense programs — they are highly trained as musicians, and come here at 18 ready to do anything I could ask of them. I’ve been lucky to have many of these kinds of people. 

Q: What was it like to welcome returning alumni and direct the “Frexit” farewell concert? 

The responses to the invitations we sent out were very moving. It was a bit surreal to see so many people on stage, some who graduated two or three years ago — and quite a few from three decades ago. The most surprising was the healthy turnout and how balanced the group was. The overall sound of 30 current students with 70 alumni was powerful and elegant, and utterly in tune — I taught these singers to listen! Several choir alumni compositions were featured, and the premier of [Class of 2003 graduate] Gabe Kahane’s “All Things Must Pass” was among the highlights of the evening. 

Q: What’s next for you?

Before I came to Brown, I was mostly a performer, and I look forward to doing more performing as a solo singer and keyboard player. The Schola Cantorum of Boston chamber choir is still going strong, and I’ll have more time to publicize and organize that. I’m also music co-director at Trinity Church in Newport, where we’re getting ready to celebrate the 300th birthday of our amazing building in 2026 and are currently raising money for a new Fisk organ. I’ll also be keeping busy with gardening and cooking. There is even some talk about organizing an alumni choir tour in the near future, so stay tuned.