Graham Jackson (15 February 1967 – 23 July 2012) was a British conductor.

Early life and education

Born in

Burnham, Buckinghamshire Burnham is a large village and civil parish that lies north of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire, between the towns of Maidenhead and Slough, about 24 miles west of Charing Cross, London. It is probably best known for the nearby Burnham Beec ...

, Jackson learned the

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

as a child, and served as first bassoon in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He studied at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

from 1985 to 1988 as organ scholar, receiving a dual degree in music and mathematics. Jackson then won a scholarship to study conducting for three years at the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Career

Having concluded his studies, in 1992 he joined

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera (WNO) ( cy, Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its ...

as chorus master, répétiteur and conductor. He soon earned a reputation for his prodigious keyboard skills and his ability to conduct scores from memory. From 2000 to 2003, Jackson was "Kapellmeister" (principal conductor) at the Theater Bremen, where he managed the new production of

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

's ''Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'' to critical acclaim. He became "Generalmusikdirektor" (Director of Music) of the Theater Krefeld and Mönchengladbach in 2003. Despite being a non-smoker, he was diagnosed in 2009 with stage 4 lung cancer. He concluded his tenure in this post in early July 2012, just over a fortnight before his death. His gave his final series of concerts starting on 5 July 2012, including a performance of Berlioz's

Symphonie Fantastique ' (''Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections'') Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performan ...

. His work in contemporary music included conducting premieres of works by

François Sarhan François Sarhan (born 30 September 1972) is a French composer, installation artist, visual artist and writer. Biography Born in Rouen, Sarhan studied composition with Guy Reibel, Philippe Manoury, Brian Ferneyhough at the Conservatoire de P ...

Charlotte Seither Charlotte Seither (born 1965) is a German classical composer, pianist and music educator. She has composed a wide range of orchestral music, orchestral, chamber music, chamber and choral music, winning many awards including the 2014 German Music A ...

, Stefan Heucke and

Sidney Corbett Sidney Corbett (born April 26, 1960 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer based in Germany. Biography Sidney Corbett was born in Chicago in 1960, studied music and philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and continued ...

. He felt that his finest achievement was the première of Heuke's work Das Frauenorchester von Auschwitz, an opera that tells how female prisoners at the concentration camp made music together under the direction of Alma Rosé, Mahler's niece. At the time it provoked much discussion in German musical circles. He was popular with both critics and audiences alike, and was voted Conductor of the Year by critics in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

for 2010–2011.

Personal life

Jackson was married for 19 years to the artist and flautist Adrienne Jackson. The couple had four children, Oliver, Helena, Daniel and Tess. He died at home in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

on 23 July 2012.

Recordings

As conductor * Anthems for the Chapel Royal of

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...

. - Hamburg: BMG Ariola, (1994) * Noah (soundtrack) Corbett, Sidney. - Berlin: Detlef Kessler, P 2004 * Essay on Shadow and Truth (soundtrack) Seither, Charlotte. Zeitklang Edition (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Graham Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English conductors (music) British male conductors (music) 1967 births 2012 deaths People from Burnham-on-Sea