ABOUT
***** Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
“The acoustics of this endearingly quirky opera house are excellent and the ENO orchestra sounded radiant under the accomplished direction of George Jackson. Textural detail emerged clearly and the dramatic momentum was unfaltering.”
***** Barry Millington, Evening Standard
“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.”
***** Peter Reed, Classical Source
Armed with insatiable artistic curiosity, a true performer’s instincts and the advantages of a rigorous central European training, George Jackson has earned critical acclaim for the authority and eloquence of his music-making. The British conductor’s career continues to gather momentum, propelled by landmark debuts with leading orchestras and opera companies and fuelled by his power to communicate compelling musical ideas.
Jackson’s interpretation of Hänsel und Gretel for Grange Park Opera, given with the Orchestra of English National Opera in summer 2019, was showered with five-star reviews and hailed as ‘magnificent’ by the Telegraph. His 2019-20 season includes returns to work with Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Philharmonie Luxembourg and Cité de la musique in Paris, and the orchestras of Opera North and Opéra de Rouen. He is also set to conduct a retrospective of music by Irish composers, comprising works by Brian Boydell, Ina Boyle and Stanford, with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin and the world premiere of Tscho Theissing’s Genia at Theater an der Wien, a major contribution to Beethoven Year 2020.
News of the conductor’s calm assurance and dynamic musicianship spread worldwide in April 2018 when he replaced Daniel Harding at short notice in Ives’s Fourth Symphony with the Orchestre de Paris at the Philharmonie de Paris. He also conducted Les Arts Florissants and Ensemble Intercontemporain during the same concert. The range of Jackson’s work is reflected in other recent engagements, embracing everything from debut performances with Hamburg State Opera, the London Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kammeroper Frankfurt and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie to new productions with his Vienna-based Speculum Musicae Opera Company and The Magic Flute for Opera North.
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Pierre Gervasoni, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Steve Reich: Reich/Richter, Philharmonie de Paris, Le Monde
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Peter Jarolin, Theater an der Wien, Tscho Theissing: ‘Genia’ (World Premiere), Kurier
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Bernard Vincken, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Steve Reich: Reich/Richter, Grand Auditorium de la Philharmonie Luxembourg, Crescendo Magazine
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Ensemble Intercontemporain, Benedict Mason: drawing tunes and fuguing photos; Rebecca Saunders: Scar; James Dillon: Tanz/haus: triptych 2017, Concerto Net (Jérémie Bigorie)
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George Hall, Grange Park Opera / Hänsel und Gretel, The Stage
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David Mellor, Grange Park Opera / Hänsel und Gretel, The Mail on Sunday
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Peter Reed, Grange Park Opera / Hänsel und Gretel, Classical Source
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Christopher Walker, Grange Park Opera / Hänsel und Gretel, London News Online
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Richard Fairman, Hänsel und Gretel / Grange Park Opera, Financial Times
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Louise Lewis, Hänsel und Gretel / Grange Park Opera, British Theatre Guide
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Robert Hugill, Hänsel und Gretel / Grange Park Opera, Planet Hugill
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Benjamin Poore, Hänsel und Gretel / Grange Park Opera, Bachtrack
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Robert Matthew-Walker, Classical Source
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John Pritchard, London Firebird Orchestra, Seen and Heard International
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William Ruff, Opera North / The Magic Flute, Nottingham Post
Bernhard Uske, Kammeroper Frankfurt / Pagliacci, Frankfurter Rundschau
George Jackson was born in London in July 1987. As the child of actor parents, he was encouraged to invent theatrical entertainments with his sister and their friends. Young George began playing violin at the age of seven, broadened his musical horizons as drummer and guitarist at high school in post-punk, rock and Irish folk bands and fell in love with classical music as a member of the Ealing Youth Orchestra. His open-minded formative development has cast a lasting influence over his versatility as a symphonic and operatic conductor, a champion of new work and a passionate explorer of symphonic scores by, among others, Mendelssohn, Schumann and their contemporaries.
Jackson read for a degree in music at Trinity College, Dublin, where he gained early experience as conductor of its chapel choir and his own contemporary music ensemble. He subsequently studied conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, developing all-round skills and heeding sound professorial advice to make haste slowly. In the later stages of his intensive five-year course, he received additional training at Weimar’s Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik and took part in masterclasses with, among others, Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur and David Robertson. He also gained invaluable insights while working as assistant to his mentors Robert Spano and Yves Abel.
Prizewinning success at the 2012 International Conducting Competition ‘Jeunesses Musicales’ in Bucharest led to Jackson’s professional debut with the Oltenia Philharmonic in Craiova, Romania. He continued his studies at the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Bayreuth Festival and, over two summers, at the Aspen Conducting Academy, where he won the 2015 Aspen Conducting Prize.
INTERVIEWS
CALENDAR
23rd-25th April 2021
Regional Tour, Normandy, France
Opéra de Rouen Normandie
Jane Murphy (Violin)
Widmann, Jörg: Con Brio
Beethoven, Ludwig van: Violin Concerto in D major, op.61
Beethoven, Ludwig van: Die Ruinen von Athen: Overture, op.113
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: Symphony no. 35 in D major, K.385 “Haffner”
1/4/10/12/14/16/18/20/22/24/26
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
3rd July 2021, 8:00pm
Grande Salle Pierre Boulez, Philharmonie, Paris
Festival Days Off / Philip Glass, Steve Reich
Orchestre de Paris
Philip Glass: Symphony No. 1 (Low)
Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite (French Premiere)
Steve Reich: Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (French Premiere)
21st October 2021, 8:00pm
Rome, Italy
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Steve Reich: Reich/Richter (Italian Premiere)
Steve Reich: Eight Lines
5 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 18 / 20 / 23 / 25 / 27 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: Sebastiá Peris
ROSINA: Sofia Vinnik
DON BASILIO: Ivan Zinoviev
DON BARTOLO Dumitru Madarasan
BERTA: Miriam Kutrowatz
June-July 2022
TBC
TBC
Leoš Janáček: The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century
Conductor: George Jackson
ORCHESTRA: tbc
CONTACT
Jordi Martin Mont / jordi@maestroarts.com / +44 7934 568677
Sophie Farrell / sophie@maestroarts.com / +44 7788 284615
Silvia Paolucci / spaolucci@melosopera.com / +39 349 3002723
Markus Laska / mlaska@melosopera.com / +39 348 5278616
Website photography by:
Tim Dunk – A.P. Wilding – Maria Bachmann