Presenter

Jordy Yack

Communications Coordinator, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre

You know Jordy is a product of the ‘90s when his first album on cassette was Use Your Illusion II and his first CD was Use Your Illusion I. He first ventured into the world of radio broadcasting in his parents’ basement around 1995. He recorded music and chatter with a tape deck held up to a speaker system and five-disc changer. Let’s hope those embarrassing ‘early demos’ have long been destroyed. This youthful passion ultimately transformed into his professional career. By early 2000, Jordy hosted two radio shows and became Music Director of CFBU – Brock University’s campus & community radio station.

This fascination with music soon transcended into a career in music journalism. Jordy spent 8 years tackling alt-weeklies Pulse Niagara and View Magazine as Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor. During this time he was also a member of the jury for the Polaris Music Prize, from 2006 until 2012.  With the looming threat of print media crashing in the mid-2010s, Jordy modified his skills and jumped head-first into the world of social media. After dabbling in freelance social media marketing, he spent over 3 years as a Digital Strategist for Dragon’s Den sweethearts Balzac’s Coffee Roasters.

Jordy is a co-founder of the In the Soil Arts Festival and received a Trillium Award in 2010 for Innovation in the Arts. Jordy is currently the Communications Coordinator at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre and handles digital marketing strategy and implementation, plus a myriad of other marketing responsibilities. In his spare time, he is an avid runner, cyclist, indie rock junkie and Watford Football Club supporter.