Winner of the 2015 Aspen Conducting Prize, London-born conductor George Jackson came to international attention after stepping in at short notice for Daniel Harding at the Philharmonie de Paris, conducting a programme featuring Ives’ Fourth Symphony with Orchestre de Paris.
Highlights in 2018 include his company debut as Associate Conductor of Opera Holland Park (Così fan tutte), a new production for Kammeroper Frankfurt (I Pagliacci), and concerts with the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier.
In 2017 he made his Hamburg State Opera debut, conducting the world premiere of Immer weiter by Irene Galindo Quero and Jesse Boekman. George has conducted, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Haydn Orchestra di Bolzano e Trento, the RTÉ Concert and Symphony Orchestras, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Les Arts Florissants.
In 2010, George founded the Vienna-based Speculum Musicae Opera Company, conducting new productions of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona and Charpentier’s David et Jonathas. He has also conducted performances with the Pro Arte Orchestra Vienna of Die Zauberflöte, Der Freischütz, La Traviata, Fidelio, Turandot, Der Fliegende Holländer and La Bohème.
George participated in international master classes, where his teachers included Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur and David Robertson. He has developed over the years a deep knowledge of the wider opera repertoire by assisting his mentors Robert Spano and Yves Abel in international houses including the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Opéra National de Paris, Theater an der Wien and the Aspen Opera Theater Center, with titles such as Wozzeck, I Capuleti e I Montecchi, Carmen, Billy Budd, La Fille du Régiment, Hänsel und Gretel, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Madama Butterfly, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Tannhäuser.
An alumnus of the conservatories of Vienna, Weimar and Trinity College Dublin, George furthered his studies at the Lucerne Festival Academy, Dartington Festival, Bayreuth Festival and the Aspen Music Festival, where he was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and the David A. Karetsky Memorial Fellowship. A prizewinner at the 2012 ‘Jeunesses Musicales’ Conducting Competition in Bucharest, George is a Help Musicians UK ‘Emerging Excellence’ Artist, and has received numerous scholarships from organisations including the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Tillett Trust, Janeczek Foundation, Irish Arts Council, Richard Wagner Foundation, the Roderick Brydon Memorial Trust and the Sir Charles Mackerras Fellowship in Conducting at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire. He was a member of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung’s ‘Akademie Musiktheater heute’ scheme for young opera professionals.
Concerts and Tickets
George Jackson leads a program featuring music by György Ligeti, Mozart—with guest pianist Clara Yang—and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. Concerts are March 3 & 5, 2019.
George Jackson on Social Media
Q&A
We love that you were in a rock band as a youth. Any other fun childhood stories that you’d care to share, whether or not they’re about music?
As a child, I was scarily into organizing – it’s probably no surprise that I became a conductor! There was one Sunday morning when I was around 11 years old. Using the school address book, I had invited all of my classmates to a weekend soccer tournament in the park behind our house.
My parents had no idea.
At around midday, 30 boys were dropped off at my house, head to toe in full sports gear, ready to play a series of 5 rounds of 5-a-side (I had even ‘commissioned’ my 8-year old sister to make a trophy for the winning team).
Luckily, my incredible mum (who was used to these kinds of shenanigans by this stage) rushed out to the local supermarket and whipped up some burgers for a post-match treat (I am still grateful).
And I convinced my Dad to be the referee at the last minute, too….
Did you have a childhood hero?
I was an enormous soccer fan growing up, and used to idolize many of the players in the various English football leagues in the mid 1990s.
There was a kid at my swimming club who told me I looked like Macaulay Culkin (who I really admired) from Home Alone / Richie Rich. So I decided to pretend that I was ACTUALLY Macaulay Culkin, and could do a really good American accent for the films (I can’t, I promise). I think I kept that going for about 6 months!
Do you like to cook?
Yes.
What are some of your favorite dishes?
I received a gift of a tagine recently (the Moroccan earthenware pot), and have been enjoying cooking all sorts of slow-cooked dishes. The last one was a sort of lamb chop with white beans improvisation that included couscous and a lot of onions (and garlic!). I also love cooking steak with homemade fries – it’s my go-to Friday night treat!
And Indian food, which curiously, reminds me of ‘home’, since Indian food is probably the best ‘London’ dish that I can think of. If I am working away from home for a long period of time and there is a kitchen, I often travel with a little miniature tupperware box of spices so I can whip up a curry – which is also a fantastic dish for sharing with friends!
Favorite beverage(s)?
It really depends on the mood! I would never say no to a pre-dinner Negroni, and I try to be a bit of a wine buff from time to time. But best of all is probably a good old English Gin and Tonic!
What’s on your reading list right now?
Well, I am a huge Kindle person, and have stacked up quite a backlog of future reads. I am a John Grisham freak (which is where my love of the South began). And there is a new one in October this year, so that is at the top of my list then! But I will re-read some old favorites before then, I am sure.
I have just downloaded Jonathan Raban’s Old Glory, which describes his voyage down the Mississippi River. Tom Hanks’ relatively new book of short stories is also on my list, as well as Sofka Zinovieff’s Putney, which is quite a harrowing novel about life in 1970s London.
I try to separate ‘work’ reading (like re-reading a biography of Dvorak in preparation for our concert together in the Spring), with ‘leisure’ reading. Otherwise, everything becomes about work and you just get no downtime!
What music is in your playlist right now?
I am about to go on a long car journey (from Frankfurt to Berlin), and my playlist includes: The Beatles (every album!), Bad Religion, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Sunset Boulevard’, ‘The Magic Flute’, and a Bob Dylan anthology.
Any favorite movies?
I am crazy about Woody Allen, and am forever finding favorites in his gigantic output! ‘Mighty Aphrodite’ still makes me giggle. I am a hopeless romantic at heart, so love a lot of the classic ‘Romcoms’ – particularly British ones set in London (all of which seem to star either Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, or both)!
Any other favorite sports or hobbies?
I wouldn’t describe myself as particularly sporty, though I do love swimming – especially if it’s in the sea, a lake, or a river. I am a podcast fan (and proudly added the amazing Triad Podcast Network to my playlist), and enjoy following a lot of news and current affairs programmes.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
A spoon of salted caramel ice-cream in a mug, which I then place under my coffee machine and pour over a ridiculously strong double espresso. Then eat the melted coffee and ice cream mess with a combination of spoon and sipping. Try it – it’s devilishly good!
If you were stuck on a desert island, aside from a boat, what 5 musical recordings would you want with you?
This changes every time I am asked this question, but spontaneously, I would say: The Beatles’ Penny Lane (it paints such a fantastic portrait of England), the Rolling Stones’ Miss You (for all the people I’d miss), Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean (perhaps I’d do some aerobics to keep myself fit on the island), the entire Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner (16 hours of music, which would help pass the time on the island), and Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute (because it’s Mozart!)
What would you do if you weren’t a conductor?
Honestly, I would say a director. Either for film, tv, or theatre. I think my real passion is witnessing a project run from its humble beginnings and guiding it to its completion, whilst also realising that as a director (like a conductor), you are merely the person who encourages everybody to do their best work. Anything that involves collaborating with other humans is where I feel at home.
I will let you be the judge of whether becoming a chef was ever an option for me….
What’s something about your home that you would bring to Winston-Salem?
Definitely not the weather, that’s for sure! I think I would bring an unlimited supply of tea bags, so I could make anybody from my new Winston-Salem family a good cup of English tea if they stop by for a visit.
