Acclaimed pianist Jeffrey Jacob will be giving a lecture recital on George Crumb’s masterpiece, Makrokosmos, Vol. 2 (12 Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac) at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa campus on Wednesday, November 5 at 2:30pm at the Music Building, Room 210. This rarely-performed work will be presented in its entirety, and will be accompanied by Dr. Jacob’s explanations of the various unusual playing techniques that are involved in performing his work.
Jeffrey Jacob has been described by the Warsaw Music Journal as “unquestionably one of the greatest performers of 20th century music,” and the New York Times as “an artist of intense concentration and conviction.” Mr. Jacob received his education from the Juilliard School (Master of Music) and the Peabody Conservatory (Doctorate) and counts as his principal teachers, Mieczyslaw Munz, Carlo Zecchi, and Leon Fleisher. Since his debut with the London Philharmonic in Royal Festival Hall, he has appeared as piano soloist with over 20 orchestras internationally including the Moscow, St. Petersburg, Seattle, Portland, Indianapolis, Charleston, Saõ Paulo and Brazil National Symphonies, the Silesian, Moravian, North Czech, and Royal Queenstown Philharmonics. A noted proponent of contemporary music, he has performed the world premieres of works written for him by George Crumb, Vincent Persichetti, Gunther Schuller, Samuel Adler, Francis Routh, Jianjun He, and many others. He has performed solo recitals in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Warsaw, Bucharest, Milan, Madrid, Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro, Saõ Paulo, Havana, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Sydney, Auckland, Toronto, Ottawa, and throughout the U.S.
Mr. Jacob has recorded over 120 works for solo piano and piano and orchestra including his critically acclaimed series of CDs of the complete piano music of Samuel Barber and George Crumb and major works of Bela Bartok. Fanfare Magazine recently devoted a feature article to his series of CDs for New Ariel Recordings entitled Contemporary American Eclectic Music for the Piano. Additionally, he has made radio recordings for Radio Warsaw, Radio Prague, and Brazil National Radio, as well as a series of recordings of American music for the BBC.