Jacobs, Paul
Jacobs, Paul
Jacobs, Paul, American pianist, harpsichordist, and teacher; b. N.Y., June 22, 1930; d. there, Sept. 25, 1983. He was a student of Hutcheson and a graduate student at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (1951). He began his career performing with the Composers Forum and Robert Craft’s Chamber Arts Soc. in N.Y. After making his formal debut in N.Y. in 1951, he was active in Europe in avant-garde circles. In 1956 he gave an unprecedented recital in Paris of the complete piano works of Schoenberg. Returning to the U.S. in 1960, he taught at the Mannes School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, and Brooklyn Coll. In 1962 he was named the official pianist of the N.Y. Phil., and also was its official harpsichordist from 1974. While he played much Baroque music, Jacobs acquired a fine reputation as a champion of contemporary music, most notably of scores by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Copland, Messiaen, Cage, Boulez, and Stockhausen. Jacobs was one of the first musicians of prominence to succumb to the plague of AIDS.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire