

Paul Jacobs, chairman of the organ department
at New York’s Juilliard School at Lincoln Center, was appointed
to the Juilliard faculty in 2003 at the age of 26,making him one
of the youngest faculty appointments in the school’s history.
He came to national attention as a concert organist
in 2000, when he twice performed the complete organ works of J.S.
Bach in 14 consecutive evenings, in New York City and Philadelphia.
Later in the year, he trumped that achievement by performing the
complete works again in an 18-hour non-stop marathon in Pittsburgh.
In 2000, he was a featured performer for the national convention
of the American Guild of Organists in Seattle; in 2004, he was
a featured artist at the organization’s national convention
in Los Angeles; and in 2005, he was a featured performer at the
national convention of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians
held in New York City.
In 2002, he performed the complete organ works
of Messiaen in a series of nine-hour one-day marathons in six
American cities: Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, San Francisco,
Minneapolis, and Seattle, and has more recently repeated the phenomenal
performance in New York City. He has performed throughout the
United States as well as in South America, Asia, Australia, Canada,
and Europe.
Paul Jacobs began studying the piano at the
age of six and the organ at age 13. By the age of 15 he was appointed
head organist of a parish of 3,500 families in his hometown of
Washington, Pennsylvania, continuing his organ studies with George
Rau and his piano studies with Susan Woodard. Mr. Jacobs is a
graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where
he double-majored in organ and harpsichord, studying with John
Weaver and Lionel Party. He subsequently received the Master of
Music degree and Artist Diploma from Yale, studying organ with
Thomas Murray. In 2005, he was honored with the Distinguished
Alumni Award from the Yale School of Music, along with violinist
Syoko Aki and composer Daniel Asia.
Mr. Jacobs is the first organist ever
to be honored with the Harvard Musical Association's prestigious
Arthur W. Foote Award. His debut recording was released in 2004
on the JAV label and features an all-Bach program released in
a rarely attempted completely unedited format. He will be featured
in a full Easter Sunday program on “St. Paul Sunday”
broadcast nationally and internationally by American Public Media
on Easters 2006, 2007, and 2008. In July 2007, he was a judge
at the St. Albans International Organ Competition in England,
the oldest such competition in Europe.