Jory Vinikour proves the truism that the best conductors are the ones who learn their business from the inside - playing with an orchestra, accompanying voices, actually making music.

Twice nominated for a Grammy as a harpsichord soloist and internationally known for concerto appearances with leading orchestras as well as concert partnerships with leading singers, Mr. Vinikour spent more than twenty years playing continuo for opera bands in Paris, Zurich, Salzburg, Aix...and doing so with an unusual distinction.

After that, directing from the keyboard was a natural progression. Mr Vinikour studied conducting in New York with the great Russian pedagogue Vladimir Kin, and launched his new career in 2016 with Handel's Agrippina for West Edge Opera, Berkeley - swiftly followed by Purcell's Fairy Queen for Chicago Opera Theater ("expertly" conducted said the Chicago Tribune) and a double-bill of Venus and Adonis/Dido and Aeneas for Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera.

He returned to Milwaukee in 2019 for L'Incoronazione di Poppea, staged by Robin Guarino. And the same year he conducted Bastien und Bastienne/Der Schauspieldirektor in the Mozartwoche, Salzburg, at the invitation of Rolando Villazon with whom he has worked as an accompanist for some ten years, followed by a much-acclaimed modern premiere of Domenico Freschi’s Ermelinda for Ars Minerva in San Francisco. 

Outside opera Mr Vinikour has directed performances with the St. Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Alabama Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Musica Angelica, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Seoul Chamber Morning Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Camerata Bariloche in Buenos Aires, Orchestre de Bretagne, and at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival. 

Above all, Jory Vinikour is a remarkable communicator who engages with his audience, through formal music-making and – where it's appropriate – informal dialogue. “He makes a concert an experience”, said the Christian Science Monitor, “in the very best sense of the word'. The ultimate objective.

BACH, JS | Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 | Deutschen Händel-Solisten | Karlsruhe Handel Festival

“Vinikour was also breathtaking in the extensive, incredibly difficult harpsichord part in Father Bach's 5th

Brandenburg Concerto, which is rightly considered the first real harpsichord concert in music history. Together with Susanne Kaiser (flute) and Andrea Keller (violin), the animated Handel soloists, led by the energetic Vinikour, made the popular baroque classic a revelatory feast.” - Badisches Neueste Nachrichten

BLOW, J | Venus and Adonis| Florentine Opera

“Mainly behind the success was the grace of the music itself under visiting conductor Jory Vinikour.”

— Dominique Paul Noth, Urban Milwaukee

FRESCHI | Ermelinda | Ars Minerva

“Ricci’s direction, operating on a bare stage against a backdrop of fetching visual projections, captured this quicksilvery dramatic vein perfectly. So did music director Jory Vinikour, leading a small complement of string instruments from the harpsichord and giving the whole performance a welcome sense of spontaneity and security.” – Joshua Kosman, Datebook

“Conductor Jory Vinikour presided from a harpsichord over a six-member onstage band. The orchestral work was sensitive and responsive. In ODC’s close quarters the musicians were bound to get into the act. Clorindo’s mad scenes involved some harassing of the players. Vinikour and his crew got their own licks in at one point, interrupting Freschi’s score with a quote from Handel. That small musical joke landed better than some of the other antics.” – Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice

“Like Ricci’s direction, the musical guidance of conductor and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour divulged obvious cognizance of and respect for singers and singing, as well as an innate affinity for Freschi’s style. Ritornelli did not merely preface individual numbers or accompany characters’ entrances and exits: under Vinikour’s supervision, these interludes intensified the emotions of the scenes they punctuated. There are few places in the United States in which the joke of inserting a few bars of Cleopatra’s ‘Piangerò la sorte mia’ and Almirena’s ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Händel’s Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo into the scene in which music is proposed as an effective treatment for amorous maladies could be expected to be appreciated, but the hilarity of this anachronism was not wasted on Ars Minerva’s audience. [So eloquent was the musicians’ playing of these fragments that Freschi would surely have forgiven Rosaura for succumbing to the temptation to sing the arias.] Vinikour collaborated with his orchestral colleagues with the camaraderie of a chamber musician, but his stewardship of the drama was the handiwork of a talented conductor not merely of specialized repertoire but of any music that he chooses to study. That this performance of Ermelinda was fastidiously prepared was palpable, but the energy and exuberance of the music making engendered an atmosphere of edge-of-the-seat spontaneity.”

Joseph Newsome,  Voix des Arts

“Although Jory Vinikour's instrumental ensemble contained only six players, it was focused and powerful. Violinists Cynthia Black and Laura Rubenstein-Salzedo, along with violist Aaron Westman and cellist Gretchen Claassen provided a lyrical pillow for the voices to ride on. The exquisite playing of theorbo player Adam Cockerham along with the fine musicianship of Vinikour who conducted from the harpsichord added to the lilting rhythms, graceful style, and Baroque intensity of the performance.” – Maria Nockin, Broadway World

“The program booklet does not credit an edition of Sig. Freschi’s little opera, thus we may assume that early music harpsichordist and conductor Jory Vinikour organized the production musically based on a manuscript found at Venice’s Marciana Library. It is lively music that flows in very natural speech rhythms enhanced with very inventive melodic riffs that tease and amuse us and become upon occasion quite specific songs. These players were a confident lot that gave us great delight in their ritornellos. The three instrument continuo cleverly supported the excellent performances center stage.” Michael Milenski, Opera Today

HANDEL | Messiah | Saint Paul’s Chamber Orchestra

“Vinikour made one wise decision after another, be it emphasizing crisp, clean attacks – the better to circumvent echo issues – or imploring the choir to make their celebratory tones extra exultant.”

—Rob Hubbard, Twincities Pioneer Press

   | Overture and Ballet Music from Rodrigo | Deutschen Händel-Solisten | Karlsruhe Handel Festival

“Conductor Jory Vinikour turns the small dances into sparkling treasures, sparked a pointed swing in the spirited Matelot and set colorful accents between the ensemble and the striking solo violin (Andrea Keller) in the Passacaglia.” -- Badische Neueste Nachrichten

 | Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno| Opera Neo

“Adroitly moving from the harpsichord to the chamber organ, conductor Jory Vinikour’s spirited direction smartly developed the score’s effulgent drama as he coaxed vibrant commitment from Opera Neo’s onstage chamber ensemble.” – San Diego Story

MONTEVERDI | The Coronation of Poppea| Florentine Opera

“The orchestra, with Vinikour conducting from a harpsichord … gave a wonderfully refined, articulate performance of Monteverdi’s score…” — Elaine Schmidt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“With meticulous precision, the conductor, revisionist and harpsichord master Jory Vinikour brings a thoughtful anchor to the melodic construction and pace.” — Dominique Paul Noth, Urban Milwaukee

“Period instruments played by the Florentine Opera Baroque Ensemble—expertly led at the harpsichord by Jory Vinikour—lend Poppea yet further historical gravitas.” — John Jahn, Shepherd Express

“Cuing singers and instrumentalists with instinctual timing whilst playing the harpsichord with the technical acumen for which he is renowned, Vinikour guided performances that demonstrated mesmerizing musical and emotional continuity. “ — Joseph Newsome, Voix de Arts

PALLAVINCINO | Messalina | Ars Minerva

“The joys of Saturday’s performance came from the music, suavely led by conductor Jory Vinikour,

accompanied by a first-rate instrumental ensemble” – Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

PURCELL | Dido and Aeneas | Florentine Opera

“Mainly behind the success was the grace of the music itself under visiting conductor Jory Vinikour.”

— Dominique Paul Noth, Urban Milwaukee

PURCELL | Fairy Queen | Chicago Opera Theatre

“What authenticity there is in this updating comes from the stylish sounds Jory Vinikour elicits from the 17 period instrument players of Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Orchestra….Conducting from the harpsichord, he sharpens rhythms deftly, supports vocal lines securely and refines textures sensitively. He has a considerable amount to do and does it all expertly.” – John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

STRADELLA | Ester, Liberatrice del Popolo Ebreo | (Recording)

“Vinikour has highlighted the main points of his version of the oratorio, emphasizing an expressiveness based on a brilliant virtuosity that spontaneously transmits warmth, from the voices and the instruments”. – Sonograma (Spain)

“Extensive experience at the harpsichord and on the podium for performances of works like

Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Domenico Freschi’s Ermelinda is discernible in Jory Vinikour’s work in this traversal of Ester, both in his intuitive playing of harpsichord and organ continuo and in his spirited, inspiriting conducting of the performance. Owing to his innate affinity for pacing Stradella’s music with complementary interpretive freedom and rhythmic firmness, the recording constitutes a true performance of the oratorio rather than a disarticulated, studio-bound recital of the score’s musical numbers. Passages of gravitas are treated as the climaxes that they were undoubtedly meant to be, but every choice of tempo and dynamics is guided by historical authenticity. The greatest marvel of Vinikour’s leadership is the manner in which adherence to Seventeenth-Century practice is regarded as a catalyst, not a constraint. Under his stewardship, principals, chorus, and orchestra perform their parts with perceptible unity of purpose, Vinikour’s supportive direction encouraging

his fellow artists not just to study but to feel Esther’s courage and Ester’s music. Unwaveringly attentive to the nuances of Vinikour’s guidance, the playing of Camerata Grimani contributes markedly to the stylistic legitimacy of this traversal of Ester. Faithful to historical models and the composer’s scoring, the ensemble’s smallness facilitates intimacy, but Vinikour and the musicians ensure that neither power nor excitement is missing in passages of dramatic intensity.” – Joseph Newsome, Voix des Arts

“This new recording by Camerata Grimani led by Jory Vinikour goes a long way to upgrade the oratorio’s standing in the audio catalog, with a superb ensemble captured in the vivid acoustics of the Sala della Carità in Padua….Under Jory Vinikour’s direction, the oratorio bubbles with excitement, and there’s enough elasticity of tempo for the singers to emphasize musical and dramatic points.” – American Record Guide

VIVALDI | Four Seasons, arrangement for mandolin| St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

“At the end of each concerto, the audience applauded; at the end of the complete work, the audience roared…a superb technician with an idiomatic, committed approach to the music.”

— Sarah Bryan Miller, St. Louis Post Dispatch

“He was always connected to the emotion in the music, whether directing a wistful serenade to the violins or practically leaping from his chair during the closing thunderstorm of "Summer."” — Chuch Lavazzi, KDHX