George HOMEPAGE - George Jackson

ABOUT

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 the orchestras he conducts. Jackson is Music Director of the Amarillo Symphony, and leads them in their centenary season in 2024.

Jackson’s skill in preparing complex scores has led to an ongoing relationship with Ensemble Intercontemporain. Together they released the world premiere recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter on Nonesuch Records, following successful performances of the work in Rome, Paris and Luxembourg. Last season he conducted the group at Festival Présences and Tokyo Easter Festival, in programmes featuring Reich, Werner, Boulez, Varèse and Webern. With Collegium Novum Zürich, Jackson conducted Isabel Mundry’s new work Noli me tangere, and with Brussels Philharmonic he led the world premiere of Claire-Mélanie Sinnhuber’s Chahut. This season with Amarillo Symphony he conducts the world premieres of works by Michael Daugherty, Matthew Kanerand Angela Elizabeth Slater.

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 the
orchestras he conducts. Jackson is Music Director of the Amarillo Symphony, and leads them in their
centenary season in 2024.

Jackson’s skill in preparing complex scores has led to an ongoing relationship with Ensemble
Intercontemporain. Together they released the world premiere recording of Steve Reich’s
Reich/Richter on Nonesuch Records, following successful performances of the work in Rome, Paris
and Luxembourg. Last season he conducted the group at Festival Présences and Tokyo Easter
Festival, in programmes featuring Reich, Werner, Boulez, Varèse and Webern. With Collegium
Novum Zürich, Jackson conducted Isabel Mundry’s new work Noli me tangere, and with Brussels
Philharmonic he led the world premiere of Claire-Mélanie Sinnhuber’s Chahut. This season with
Amarillo Symphony he conducts the world premieres of works by Michael Daugherty, Matthew Kanerand Angela Elizabeth Slater.

Jackson is increasingly sought-after as a guest with European orchestras, who appreciate his
fearless conducting and thorough rehearsal technique. Recent engagements include Orchestre de Paris, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Israel Contemporary Players and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. Future plans include performances with Brussels Philharmonic, Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier and BBC Concert Orchestra. Praised for his natural affinity for opera, he has received acclaim for his work in productions of Hänsel und Gretel and The Excursions of Mr Brouček (Grange Park Opera), La bohème and Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park), and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Theater an der Wien).

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

‘A Mic on the Podium’ Podcast

Opera Holland Park: In Conversation with Conductor George Jackson

Bühne: Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’

Kurier: Barber of Seville

W24: Vienna TV Portrait

NOTES FROM THE PODIUM 1

NOTES FROM THE PODIUM 2

Appassionati d’opera

Opera Holland Park: The Marriage of Figaro Podcast

Let’s Talk off the Podium!

Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music Blog

SCHMOPERA

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

‘A Mic on the Podium’ Podcast

Opera Holland Park: In Conversation with Conductor George Jackson

Bühne: Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’

Kurier: Barber of Seville

W24: Vienna TV Portrait

NOTES FROM THE PODIUM 1

NOTES FROM THE PODIUM 2

Appassionati d’opera

Opera Holland Park: The Marriage of Figaro Podcast

Let’s Talk off the Podium!

Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music Blog

SCHMOPERA

The Times - Richard Morrison

“Most of the musical interest lies in the deft instrumental writing, effectively realised by the Gascoigne Orchestra under George Jackson’s meticulous direction.”

Anthony Bolton, Island of Dreams (world premiere)
Grange Park Opera

The Guardian - Tim Ashley

“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.”

Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro
Opera Holland Park

Evening Standard - Barry Millington

“Not only did he pace the action unfailingly to contrast the moments of private anguish with the frenetic public activity going on around it, but he also drew out the beauty and wrung out the maximum pathos from a score that drips with it.”

Puccini, La Bohème
Opera Holland Park / City of London Sinfonia

The Telegraph - Rupert Christiansen

“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.”

Humperdinck, Hänsel und Gretel
Grange Park Opera / Orchestra of English National Opera

Classykeo - Soline Heurtebise

“L’album MOONDOG 1969 a été sublimé par l’interprétation magistrale de l’Orchestre philharmonique de Bruxelles, sous la direction éclairée de George Jackson.”

Moondog, 1969
Brussels Philharmonic

BBC Music Magazine - Claire Jackson

“George Jackson expertly pushes Pierre Boulez’s former ensemble through the pixelating patterns. Some audience snuffling and shuffling is audible in this otherwise mesmeric performance.”

Steve Reich, ‘Reich/Richter’
Ensemble Intercontemporain

British Theatre - Tim Hochstrasser

“The musical side of the evening operates at a very high level. The City of London Sinfonia, under George Jackson’s baton, relishes the tasty orchestral textures, bringing out the many layers of instrumental flavour that Puccini conjures up in the service of the dramatic moment. There is nothing routine in this performance and because Jackson risked creating genuine pianissimos under the cavernous Holland Park tent we got to hear inner parts of the orchestra not usually discernible within the overall wash of sound.”

Puccini, La Bohème
Opera Holland Park / City of London Sinfonia

The Arts Desk - Jessica Duchen

“The award-winning young conductor George Jackson exerts formidable control over the shape and pace of the action, no easy ask in such a bizarre creation”.

Janáček, ‘The Excursions of Mr Brouček
Grange Park Opera / BBC Concert Orchestra

CALENDAR

13th & 14th September 2024

Amarillo Symphony

Globe News Centre
Amarillo, TX

Adam Schoenberg: Go!

Kevin Puts: Flute Concerto

Ravel: Une barque sur l’océan

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

Jake Fridkis flute

11th & 12th October 2024

Amarillo Symphony

Globe News Centre
Amarillo, TX

Michael Daugherty: Cadillac Ranch (world premiere)

Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring

Kevin Puts: Contact

Time for Three String Trio

8th November 2024

BBC Concert Orchestra

Great Yarmouth, UK

Friday Night is Music Night!

16th November 2024

Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier

Opéra Comédie, Montpellier
France

Haydn: The Creation

Emily Gazeilles soprano

Maciej Kwasnikowski tenor

Alexandre Baldo bass-baritone

29th November 2024

Brussels Philharmonic

Flagey, Brussels, Belgium

Moondog Symphonic

Moondog: Theme, Stamping Ground, Symphonique #3 (Ode to Venus), Symphonique #6 (Good for Goodie, Minisym #1, Lament 1 (Bird’s Lament, Witch of Endor, Symphonique #1 (Portrait of a Monarch)

EEC Suite: Golden Fleece, Hymn to Peace, EEC Lied, Two Poems