Classical Music Inside Out: Paul Jacobs

Heralded as “one of the finest organists and teachers of our day,” by The New York Times, “one of the major musicians of our time” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker and as “America’s leading organ performer” by The Economist, the internationally celebrated organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical mastery with an unusually large repertoire, both old and new. He has performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the fifty United States. The only organist ever to have won a Grammy Award—in 2011 for Messiaen’s towering “Livre du Saint-Sacrément,”—Mr. Jacobs is an eloquent champion of his instrument both in the United States and abroad.

Celebrating 25 years since he first made musical history at age 23 by performing J.S. Bach’s complete organ works in an 18-hour marathon on the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death, Mr. Jacobs continues to transfix audiences, colleagues, and critics alike with his prodigious memory of a vast repertoire, both old and new. A fierce advocate of new music, Mr. Jacobs has premiered works by Samuel Adler, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, Bernd Richard Deutsch, John Harbison, Lowell Liebermann, Wayne Oquin, Stephen Paulus, Christopher Theofanidis, and Christopher Rouse, among others. As a teacher, he has also been a vocal proponent of the redeeming nature of traditional and contemporary classical music.

No other organist is repeatedly invited as soloist to perform with prestigious orchestras, thus making him the leading pioneer in the movement for the revival of symphonic music featuring the organ. Mr. Jacobs regularly appears with the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, and Utah Symphony, among others.

Jacobs has collaborated with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Franz Welser-Moest, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Elim Chan, James Conlon, David Danzmayr, William Eddins, Thierry Fischer, James Gaffigan, Edward Gardner, Gustavo Gimeno, Jane Glover, Giancarlo Guerrero, Manfred Honeck, Carolyn Kuan, Jun Märkl, Ken-David Masur, Tito Muñoz, Gemma New, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Daniele Rustioni, Alexander Shelley, Carl St. Clair, Michael Stern, Alain Trudel, Osmo Vänskä, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, among others.

Mr. Jacobs studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with organist John Weaver and harpsichordist Lionel Party, and at Yale University with Thomas Murray. He joined the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2003, and was named chair of the organ department in 2004, one of the youngest faculty appointees in the school’s history. He received Juilliard’s prestigious William Schuman Scholar’s Chair in 2007. In 2017, he received an honorary doctorate from Washington and Jefferson College. In 2021, The American Guild of Organists named him recipient of the International Performer of the Year Award. Mr. Jacobs has written several well-received articles for the Wall Street Journal.

Classical Music Inside Out is under the artistic direction of GRAMMY® Award-winning Cellist Zuill Bailey. Zuill Bailey is underwritten by Bill Passey and Maria Silva. 

Plan Your Visit