Jordan Rakita is the director of the Phoenicians, a premier barbershop chorus in the Metro Phoenix area and also serves as the director of the tenor/bass ensemble Canticum Bassum at Arizona State University where he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Choral Conducting. 

Rakita is indebted to his early educators, Randy Pagel and Kim Ritzer, who helped form a deep love of choral music, performing at the National ACDA Convention and encouraging him to attend Northern Arizona University with Dr. Edith Copley. While in Flagstaff, he pioneered a tenor/bass ensemble with the Flagstaff Youth Chorale where he served as Associate Director. This pursuit was the result of his time in The Westminster Chorus, a barbershop chorus he participated in, taking first at the Barbershop Chorus Competition in 2010 in Philadelphia. In 2015, Rakita completed a Master of Music in Choral Conducting as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education at NAU. During this time, he served as the director of the University Singers, a 100 voice mixed ensemble. He also studied voice with Dr. Ricardo Pereira and Dr. Judith Cloud, who both impacted his understanding of vocal pedagogy immensely. He was able to use this tutelage while he held the position of voice instructor at the Curry Summer Music Camp teaching private lessons and master classes as well as courses in musical theater and music theory.

In his time in Phoenix, Rakita has been fortunate to continue pursuits as a performer. He was thrilled to be a part of the Grammy-award winning Phoenix Chorale under Charles Bruffy. He also sang in Helios, a unique early music vocal ensemble made up of seven voices. As an educator, Rakita has an array of experience as a middle school and high school director, with the Phoenix Children’s Chorus, Heritage Academy and Gilbert Christian High School. He is a sought after clinician, and is looking forward to conducting the Nevada Middle School Honor Choir this fall. 

He is grateful to his parents and stepparents, Bob and Andrea Rakita and Patti and Rick Lucchesi for their love and support. He is married to Kayla, who is an English teacher at ASU, and they are the parents of Ruby and Milo.