(b Lucerne, 9 April 1932). Swiss conductor. He studied in Lausanne and Geneva and began his career in 1957 as assistant conductor at the municipal theatre in Biel. He was principal conductor at the Zürich Opera (1963–8) and the municipal theatres in St Gallen (1968–71) and Basle (1971–89), and also of the Laussane Chamber Orchestra (1973–85) and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1985–97) with which he made numerous recordings and tours. He has also been a regular guest at the Grand Théâtre, Genéva, the Paris Opéra and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Jordan rarely conducted outside Switzerland and France until his US operatic début in 1985 at Seattle with Die Walküre which led to engagements at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival and the Metropolitan Opera. In 1997 he conducted Wagner's Parsifal at the Opéra Bastille, Paris. Both in the theatre and concert hall, Jordan’s work is distinguished by his empathy with Mozart and also for late 19th-century German and French repertory. He has recorded music by Fauré, Dukas, Debussy and Ravel as well as Strauss and Wagner.