Organist Paul Jacobs presents a solo concert at Davies Symphony Hall this Sunday afternoon, January 22nd, at 3:00. Last February Mr. Jacobs won the first Grammy Award ever bestowed on a solo organist. In the Classical category, his recording of Olivier Messiaens' Livre du Saint-Sacrement, released on the Naxos label, won "Best instrumental soloist performance (without orchestra)". Jacobs* unites technical skills of the first order with probing emotional artistry. His sweeping marathon performances of the complete works of J.S. Bach and Olivier Messiaen, as well as his presentations of new works and core repertoire, have amazed audiences, colleagues and critics alike.
This season Jacobs is presented in recital by the San Francisco Symphony, where he also plays two subscription weeks. He then travels with the orchestra to the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor and to Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall for the American Mavericks series, performing Lou Harrison's Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra, and a new work by Mason Bates.
Jacobs made musical history at the age of 23 when he played J.S. Bach’s complete organ works in an 18-hour marathon performance on the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death. He has also performed the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in marathon performances throughout North America, and recently reached the milestone of having performed in each of the fifty United States. Prodigiously talented from his earliest years, at 15 Jacobs was appointed head organist of a parish of 3,500 in his hometown, Washington, Pennsylvania. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, double-majoring with John Weaver for the organ and Lionel Party for the harpsichord, and at Yale University with Thomas Murray.
Jacobs was invited to join the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2003, and was named chairman of the organ department in 2004, one of the youngest faculty appointees in the school’s history. He received the appointment to Juilliard’s prestigious William Schuman Scholar’s Chair in 2007.
THE PROGRAM – Sunday, 3:00 pm
ELGAR – Organ Sonata No. 1 in G major, Opus 28; Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1
BACH – Trio Sonata in E minor
PRICE – Suite for Organ
BOULANGER – Trois Pièces
DEMESSIEUX – Transcendental Études
In addition to his concert and teaching appearances, Jacobs is a frequent performer at festivals across the world, and has appeared on American Public Media’s Pipedreams, Performance Today and Saint Paul Sunday, as well as NPR’s Morning Edition, Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power from the Crystal Cathedral and ABC-TV’s World News Tonight.
Click here to order Paul Jacobs' recording of the Copland Organ Symphony.
Following closely on the heels of their seven Grammy-Award winning Mahler recording cycle, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony present a hybrid SACD recording of Charles Ives' A Concord Symphony orchestrated by Henry Brant and Aaron Copland's Organ Symphony with organist Paul Jacobs. A Concord Symphony is Brant's orchestral arrangement of Ives' Sonata No. 2 for Piano.
* The YouTube features Paul Jacobs performing Bach's "Sinfonia" from Cantata No. 29 on the 273 rank Fratelli Ruffatti organ at the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California.
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