Paul Jacobs

Celebrating 25 years since he performed J.S. Bach’s complete organ works in an 18-hour marathon concert, Paul Jacobs is today considered one of the most sought-after organists in the world.

In fall 2025, to mark this auspicious anniversary, Jacobs performed two monumental Bach programs in New York City, The Art of Fugue and a recreation of the legendary Bach program given by Mendelssohn at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche in 1840. He also performed The Art of Fugue at the Oregon Bach Festival and at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The only organist ever to have won a Grammy Award, Jacobs has collabor-ated with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Franz Welser- Möst, Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Elim Chan, among others. He has performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the 50 United States, appearing regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and many more. Jacobs is also the founding director of the Oregon Bach Festival Organ Institute, a position he assumed in 2014.

A fierce advocate of new music, Jacobs has premiered works by Mason Bates, Bernd Richard Deutsch, Christopher Rouse, and Christopher Theofanidis, among others. His recording of Michael Daugherty’s Once Upon a Castle with the Nashville Symphony and Giancarlo Guerrero received three Grammy Awards, including Best Classical Compendium.

Jacobs studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and at Yale University. He joined the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2003 and was named chair of the organ department in 2004. In addition, Jacobs has appeared on American Public Media’s Performance Today, NPR’s Morning Edition, and BBC Radio 3. In 2021, he received the International Performer of the Year Award from the American Guild of Organists, and in 2017, Washington & Jefferson College bestowed him with an honorary doctorate.