P A U L J A C O B S
B i o g r a p h y
Boston-based pianist, Paul Jacobs has performed across the U.S. as a soloist and chamber musician in a variety of venues including Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center; Queens Library, NY; The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA; The Lilypad, Cambridge, MA; Hill Hall, UNC; University Capitol Centre Recital Hall, UI; and The Block, Muskegon, MI. His repertoire covers a wide range of music with an affinity for 20th century and new works. Solo performances have featured Ives’s Concord Sonata, selections of Ligeti Etudes, and Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis.
As a champion of new music, Mr. Jacobs has collaborated with currently active American composers Allen Anderson, Martin Boykin, Steve Rouse, and Yehudi Wyner. He premiered works of Allen Anderson in 2011 in Vermont and 2013 at UNC. He was also a frequent performer on the Cambridge-based Composer Focus Concert Series (2014-2016). The concert series received a grant from the city of Cambridge and was previewed in a Boston Globe article on the music of Philip Glass. In 2017 Mr. Jacobs was the soloist for a recording of Mary Bichner’s piano concerto, Early Spring, commissioned by Mount Auburn Cemetery. He has also recorded with Juventas New Music Ensemble on the Navano label
Mr. Jacobs is a member of the Thoreau Piano Trio which currently has a concert series at Chelmsford Center for the arts. Past residencies include the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival in Vermont and The White Lake Chamber Music Festival in West Michigan.
Mr. Jacobs has an interest in the study of the mind and how it relates to music. From his experiences as a performer, he became interested in how the mind deals with randomness, how it memorizes, and how different states of mind can be used effectively for learning or performing. He enjoys reading books on these subjects, and has participated in neurofeedback training and the Feldenkrais method.
Mr. Jacobs is active in the Boston-area community doing concerts at schools, churches, and retirement homes. He and his wife, Yilin You, were featured performers as a piano-duo on a benefit concert for ovarian cancer at Longy School of Music. He currently teaches private lessons at Concord Conservatory of Music and from his home studio.
Mr. Jacobs holds an A.D. from Longy School of Music, M.M. from Michigan State University, and B.M. from Hope College. His former teachers include Randall Hodgkinson, Deborah Moriarty, Joan Conway, and Arlene Warners.
