George HOMEPAGE - George Jackson

ABOUT

“George Jackson conducted the full ENO orchestra in a magnificent account of the score, sparkling with playful humour in the dialogues and exultantly romantic in the interludes.”

Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (Hänsel und Gretel / Grange Park Opera)

“The City of London Sinfonia, meanwhile, play superbly for Jackson, an excellent conductor, wonderfully alert to the sadness as well as the humour that permeates the score.”

Tim Ashley, The Guardian (The Marriage of Figaro / Opera Holland Park)

George Jackson is quickly making a name for the breadth and commitment of his work, whether in opera, symphonic repertoire or contemporary scores, building strong relationships with orchestras and houses everywhere he goes.

Recent opera appearances include a critically acclaimed Hänsel und Gretel at Grange Park Opera and the world premiere of Tscho Theissing’s Genia at Theater an der Wien in 2020, an opera inspired by events from Beethoven’s life in Vienna. In 2022 Jackson returns there with Il barbiere di Siviglia, as well as conducting Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Holland Park in 2021.

Equally at home in symphonic repertoire, he drew widespread attention when he stood in at short notice for Daniel Harding in Ives’s Fourth Symphony with Orchestre de Paris. He works with orchestras such as RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie and the orchestra of Opéra de Rouen.

“Humperdinck’s debt to Wagner is inescapable in this score, and George Jackson and the ENO Orchestra draw it out in a way that adds to the music’s stature without sounding merely derivative. A piercing solo trumpet in the Prelude for a moment stranded you in Parsifal, links between orchestra and singers were expertly and naturally judged, and the music’s abundance of charm, atmosphere and shameless memorability are all there for the hearing. If I were coming to this inexhaustible opera for the first time, this would be a touchstone production.”

Peter Reed, Grange Park Opera / Hänsel und Gretel, Classical Source

“Viel Anteil am Gelingen des Abends hatte Dirigent George Jackson mit den Musikern von Chor und Orchester der Kammeroper. Ein ausdrückliches, melodisch aufblühendes Klangbild.”

Bernhard Uske, Kammeroper Frankfurt / Pagliacci, Frankfurter Rundschau

“Tout aussi stupéfiante est cette partition, que George Jackson dirige avec beaucoup de souplesse, car elle relève à la fois du retour aux sources (les variations infinitésimales deMusic for 18 Musicians, en 1976) et du renouvellement (motifs orientalisants, faux prélude de Bach)pour témoigner d’une véritable régénérescence, tant de la musique que du compositeur.”

Pierre Gervasoni, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Steve Reich: Reich/Richter, Philharmonie de Paris, Le Monde

“Da groovt und jazzt es, klassische Klänge stehen neben einem frei melodischen Spiel der Kräfte. Diese Musik überzeugt auch dank Dirigent George Jackson und des recht groß besetzen Wiener Kammerorchesters.”

Peter Jarolin, Theater an der Wien, Tscho Theissing: ‘Genia’ (World Premiere), Kurier

Jackson’s skill in preparing complex scores has led to an ongoing relationship with Ensemble Intercontemporain. He conducted the group in the French premieres of works by Rebecca Saunders and James Dillon at the 2019 Festival d’Automne à Paris. He was involved in bringing together the premiere of Immer Weiter at Hamburg State Opera, conducting it as well as collaborating with its two young composers, Jesse Broekman and Irene Galindo Quero, and a team of creatives as part of Deutsche Bank Foundation’s Academy Musical Theatre Today. This season he has conducted Noli me tangere, a new work by Isabel Mundry, with Collegium Novum Zürich, and the world premiere of Claire- Mélanie Sinnhuber’s new work, Chahut, with Brussels Philharmonic.

As the son of actor parents, Jackson began inventing theatrical entertainments with his sister at an early age, as well as learning the violin, and later served as a drummer and guitarist in post-punk, rock and Irish folk bands, developing broad musical tastes that he retains to this day.

Jackson’s formative experiences include his participation at Lucerne Festival Academy and at Aspen Music Festival, where he was awarded the Aspen Conducting Prize in 2015. He is passionate and informed about the art and traditions of conducting, and regularly passes on his enthusiasm through podcasts on the subject.

INTERVIEWS

NOTES FROM THE PODIUM 1

NOTES FROM THE PODIUM 2

Let’s Talk off the Podium!

Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music Blog

SCHMOPERA

London Firebird Orchestra

Performance Today (Fred Childs)

CALENDAR

1/4/10/12/14/16/18/20/22/24/26/28

June 2021

Opera Holland Park

WA Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro

Conductor: George Jackson

Director: Oliver Platt

Designer: Takis

Lighting Designer: Rory Beaton

Movement Director: Caitlin Fretwell-Walsh

Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia

Count Almaviva: Julien Van Mellaerts

Countess Almaviva: Nardus Williams

Susanna: Elizabeth Karani

Figaro: Ross Ramgobin

Cherubino: Samantha Price

Marcellina: Victoria Simmonds

Bartolo: James Cleverton

Basilio/Don Curzio: Daniel Norman

Barbarina: Claire Lees

18th June 2021

Recording for BBC Radio 3

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jessie Montgomery: Banner

Mozart: ‘Linz’ Symphony

Delius: ‘On Hearing the first Cuckoo in Spring

21st July 2021

Studio Session, Howard Assembly Rooms

Orchestra of Opera North

Wagner: Overture to ‘Die Meistersinger’

Mendelssohn: ‘Italian’ Symphony

8 – 19

August 2021

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: ‘Young’ Project

Brahms: Symphony No. 2

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4

Jörg Widmann: ‘Echo Fragments’

18th September 2021

Islington Festval, London

Haydn Chamber Orchestra

Schubert: Symphony No. 6

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3

Beethoven: Overture to ‘Creatures of Prometheus’

21st November 2021, 9:00pm

Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Steve Reich: Reich/Richter (Italian Premiere)

Steve Reich: Eight Lines

21st and 22nd January 2022, 7:30pm

Globe News Centre for the Performing Arts, Amarillo, Texas, USA

Amarillo Symphony

Mendelssohn: Hebrides’ Overture

Lowell Liebermann: Flute Concerto (soloist: Jake Fridkis)

Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major

8/11/13/16/18/20/22/24/26/29 March 2022, 7pm

Wiener Kammeroper, Fleischmarkt 24, 1010 Wien, Austria

Theater an der Wien

Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Conductor: George Jackson
Director: Christoph Zauner
Designer: Nikolaus Webern
Costumes: Mareile von Stritzky
Lighting: Franz Tscheck
Orchestra: Vienna Chamber Orchestra

IL CONTE D’ALMAVIVA: Andrew Morstein

FIGARO: Timothy Connor
ROSINA: Sofia Vinnik
DON BASILIO: Ivan Zinoviev
DON BARTOLO Dumitru Madarasan

BERTA: Miriam Kutrowatz

22nd and 23rd April 2022, 7:30pm

Globe News Centre for the Performing Arts, Amarillo, Texas, USA