Heidi Jacob

Born in Orinda, California, Heidi Jacob has studied at both the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. Her conducting teachers have included Harold Farberman, Daniel Lewis and Robert Page. Appointed Music Director of The Haverford-Bryn Mawr College Orchestra in 1996, she was Music Director of The De Paul Chamber Orchestra from 1994 to 1998. In addition to serving as music director of several university orchestras, Ms. Jacob has also been guest conductor of the Lansdowne Symphony. She was selected in 1993 as a conductor in performance as part of the American Conductors Composers Seminar at Hartt College of Music. As a cellist, Ms. Jacob has distinguished herself both as a soloist and in chamber music. At the age of 17 she won critical acclaim for her performances of Bloch's "Schelomo," with performances in California and Germany, where it was broadcast over German television. A guest artist at the 1981 Chopin festival in Miami, Florida, she has also appeared as soloist at the San Francisco Bach Festival, the Temple University Summer Festival, and on WQXR in New York City. In 1986, she toured Spain, performing cello-piano duos with her husband, pianist Charles Abramovic. As a member of the Janus Trio, Ms. Jacob has performed throughout the United States including the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Bedford Springs Festival, "Mozart on the Square" in Philadelphia, and on National Public Radio. The group has toured both Spain and the former Yugoslavia, where they performed at the Dubrovnik festival. Ms. Jacob has recorded for CRS records, with a C.D. of trios by Ernest Pelligrini and Michael Zak with former Philadelphia Orchestra harpist Marilyn Costello. She was featured on WRTI's "Notes from Philadelphia," conducting performances of the Chamber Orchestra of Bryn Mawr in works by Haverford Professor Curt Cacioppo and Ferruccio Busoni. In a recording for Capstone Records she conducts the Ensemble Solarium in Curt Cacioppo’s Concerto for Oboe and String Chamber Orchestra with Harpsichord, featuring Philadelphia Orchestra oboist Jonathan Blumenfeld. She has recorded solo cello and chamber music works by Larry Nelson for Albany Records, as well as the Cello and Piano Sonatas by John Davison with pianist Charles Abramovic. She has performed as cellist with Orchestra 2001, Penn Contemporary Players, the Davidsbund Chamber Players, and has performed as principal cellist for Opera North, The Choral Arts Society and Orchestra 2001.

In June, 2011, Ms. Jacob completed her D.M.A. in composition from Temple University, where she studied with Maurice Wright, Richard Brodhead and Matthew Greenbaum.  She wrote for her doctoral thesis a Mass for a Time of War, A Requiem Mass Honoring the Victims of the Iraqi Conflict for Soprano, Tenor Solo, two narrators, chorus and orchestra.Ms. Jacob’s solo and chamber music works have been performed at Tania León's 2014 Composers Now Festival, Las Americas en Concierto in New York City, Summer Stars Classics series in Ocean Grove New Jersey, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Series, Temple University’s Contemporary Music Ensemble Rutgers University’s Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art installation, Amphibian; New Music and Video HIArt Gallery, New York City  and by The Argento Ensemble, The Hildegard Chamber Players, violinists Miranda Cuckson and Barbara Govatos, cellists Thalia Moore and Michal Schmidt, flutists Mimi Stillman and Adeline Tomasone, pianist Charles Abramovic, and the Temple University’s Contemporary Music Ensemble.  Her String Quartet, “…on enameled tablets,” was premiered at The Stone in New York City by the Momenta String Quartet. As a winner of Network for New Music’s Poetry Project her songRosetta Stone for Soprano, Cello and Piano was premiered at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia in January of 2008. She was also a winner of the American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter’s Pascal Gallois bassoon composition competition and won an Honorable Mention in the International Alliance for Women in Music Competition (Judith Lang Zaimont Prize division) for her work for piano; Regard a Schubert: a Fantasy Impromptu. Her cycle of songs on the poetry of Julia Alvarez, Beginning Again, was recently commissioned by L’Ensemble and has been performed in Italy, Bryn Mawr College and Roosevelt Island, New York. Her Fantasy for Chamber Orchestra was performed in Philadelphia by the Argento Ensemble as part of the American Composer’s Forum, New Voices project.  The CD of her song cycleBeginning Again, for soprano, violin and piano (2009), was recently released by the Vermont based L’Ensemble in their CD, “Poetry into Song”.

A recording of her compositions, “Beneath Winter Light,” produced by Parma Records, was recently released in January, 2015.