Jonathan Laabs
Artistic Director
Jonathan Laabs is proud to continue the next chapter of the Bel Canto Chorus musical journey as its Artistic Director and conductor. Jon has been an active conductor, clinician, performer, and music educator throughout the Midwest and beyond. In addition to his work with Bel Canto, he is the director of the Sheboygan Symphony Chorus, as well as the Artistic Director and conductor of Canticum Novum, a Midwest-based chorus with performances centered around an annual intensive week-long retreat. As a dedicated educator, he has worked with singers of all ages, teaching vocal music in elementary, secondary, collegiate, community, and professional settings.
As a guest conductor and clinician, Laabs has led WELS Choral Festival (2010, 2011, 2024), twice conducted the National High School Honors Choir at the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts held at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin (2014, 2017), and co-conducted the opening Festival Concert in 2024. He was selected as one of twelve international conducting fellows at the Chorus America Conducting Academy in Fullerton, California, where he studied and performed choral-orchestral works by Bernstein, Mendelssohn, and Mozart.
Laabs recently shared, "I am both honored and humbled to be joining the remarkable Bel Canto family as Artistic Director. It is clear to me that the organization’s outstanding singers, staff, and board share my same passion for the communal and connective power of choral music, as well as its ability to create lasting and impactful relationships.” He went on, “I have the utmost respect for and have experienced firsthand the extraordinary choral community and the distinguished artistic excellence that has defined Bel Canto under the musical leadership of Rick and Michelle Hynson. With one foot planted firmly in this organization's strong 95-year history, I look forward to new opportunities to broaden and enhance Bel Canto’s voice within the Milwaukee arts community and beyond."
Also an active soloist, Laabs’ performance highlights include Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, an international tour to Argentina and Uruguay of Mozart’s Requiem and Faure’s Requiem with Bel Canto International and the Texas Choral Consort, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with the Baptist College of Ministry Orchestra and Chorus, and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Minnesota Valley Chorale.
Jonathan and his wife, Erin, live in Jackson, Wisconsin, with their three children: Genevieve, Mariah, and Garrett.