Edward Jacobs
b. 1961
American
Summary
Edward Jacobs began playing violin at age 8, but abandoned that at age 11 in favor of the saxophone. He subsequently studied music composition at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University.
Jacobs work as a composer has been recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), and a Charles Ives Award of the American Academy of Arts & Letters (2005).
Jacobs is Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University, where he founded and directs the North Carolina NewMusic Initiative, begun in March, 2001.
Biography
Edward Jacobs began playing violin at age 8, but abandoned that at age 11—upon hearing a friend’s jazz quartet—in favor of the saxophone. Work at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (B.A., 1984) in jazz performance and arranging (Jeff Holmes) and composition (Salvatore Macchia, Robert Stern) was followed by study in composition (Andrew Imbrie, Olly Wilson, Gerard Grisey) and conducting (Michael Senturia) at the University of California, Berkeley (M.A., 1986) and at Columbia University (composition with Mario Davidovsky, Chou Wen-Chung, Marty Boykan, George Edwards) where he completed the D.M.A. in 1993.
Jacobs work as a composer has been recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), and a Charles Ives Award of the American Academy of Arts & Letters (2005). The Academy’s citation reads “Jacobs’s music masters the ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ sound habitats and embeds them into a unified and consistent single space with grace, broad orchestral imagination and expressivity. Jacobs’s music is immediately engaging, attractive and intellectually demanding.”
Jacobs is Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University, where he has received two Research/Creative Activity Grants, a Teacher-Scholar Award. He is the founding director of NC NewMusic Initiative, begun in March, 2001; and has also worked in the Pitt County Public Schools, collaborating 2004-2008 with middle school general music teachers in his “Young Composers Project”, which sought to make the creation of music a fundamental part of our childrens’ education.
For more information, and to listen to Jacobs’ music: www.edwardjacobs.org.