RON HENGGELER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Paul Jacobs

A frequent guest of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), Jacobs has performed and toured with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra with a range of repertoire, including Lou Harrison's Concerto for Organ with Percussion and Copland's Organ Symphony, both of which were recorded for the SFS Media label. Jacobs performed on the Ruffati organ at Davies Symphony Hall for the first time in 2009 and has been a guest every year since. He performed the world premiere of the SFS-commissioned Mass Transmission for organ, electronica, and chorus by Mason Bates, as part of the Symphony’s American Mavericks Festival at Davies Symphony Hall and on tour in 2012.

At age 15, Jacobs was appointed head organist of a parish in his hometown of Washington, Pennsylvania. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and at Yale University. Jacobs joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in 2003 and was named Chairman of the Organ Department in 2004, receiving Juilliard's William Schuman Scholar's Chair in 2007. Jacobs made musical history at the age of 23 when he played Bach's complete organ works in an 18-hour marathon on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. Jacobs is the first and only organist to have been honored with a Grammy Award, which he won in 2011 for Messiaen’s Livre du Saint-Sacrement, a work he subsequently performed at Davies Symphony Hall in January 2015. He has performed the complete organ works of Messiaen in marathon performances throughout North America.

Paul Jacobs’s 2015-16 season includes solo appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Lexington Philharmonic, performances of Michael Daugherty’s Organ Concerto with the Nashville Symphony, an organ festival with the Pacific Symphony, and recitals at the Kennedy Center and Denver Cathedral. In summer 2016, Jacobs will return to the Oregon Bach Festival, where he is the Director of the Organ Institute.

About Christine Brewer

Christine Brewer made her SFS debut with Herbert Blomstedt and the Orchestra in 1994, and last performed with the SFS in 2013 performances of Britten’s War Requiem with Semyon Bychkov conducting. She has appeared in concert in the United States with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and New World Symphony, with such conductors as Pierre Boulez, James Levine, James Conlon, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Robertson, Alan Gilbert, Christoph Eschenbach, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Gustavo Dudamel. She is a regular guest with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, she has sung with the Concertgebouw and Bayerische Rundfunk orchestras with Mariss Jansons, the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Ji?í B?lohlávek, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski, the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis and the Accademia Santa Cecilia with Antonio Pappano, and has been a regular guest with the Edinburgh Festival and BBC Proms.

Brewer’s many recordings include Don Giovanni with Mackerras, Barber’s Vanessa with Slatkin, Fidelio and Verdi’s Requiem with Colin Davis, Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos under Armstrong, Britten’s War Requiem with Kurt Masur, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Simon Rattle, Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with Runnicles, and Schubert and Strauss recitals.

Brewer has recently performed Vier letzte Lieder with the BBC Scottish Symphony under Martyn Brabbins, Gurrelieder in Madrid, Tristan und Isolde with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robertson, Mme. Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmelites at the Opera Theater of St. Louis, Mother Superior in The Sound of Music for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and a recital at the Edinburgh Festival with Roger Vignoles. Brewer is the recipient of the BBC Radio 3 Listener’s Award of the 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.