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.