Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda in 1962. After three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Jackson studied composition at the Royal College of Music, gaining his BMus in 1983. While at the College he was awarded the R.O. Morris Prize for Composition in 1981 and 1983, and in 1981 he also won the Theodore Holland Award.
His music is regularly performed, recorded and broadcast worldwide. His works have been presented at many festivals in the UK and beyond, including the BBC Proms. His liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of many of Britain's leading cathedral and collegiate choirs and his music has been commissioned and performed by many of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. In 2003 he won the liturgical category at the inaugural British Composer Awards, and won the choral award in 2009 for The Spacious Firmament and again in 2013 for Airplane Cantata.
His music is being recorded with increasing frequency, with over 60 works available on CD. In 2009, Hyperion released the critically-acclaimed Not No Faceless Angel, with Polyphony and Stephen Layton, and followed that in 2012 with 'A Ship with Unfurled Sails' by Maris Sirmais and the State Choir 'Latvija'. The Naxos recording of his Requiem, sung by the Vasaris Singers, appeared in the same year.
From 2010-2013 Jackson has been Associate Composer to the BBC Singers, resulting in a series of substantial commissions, including Airplane Cantata for choir and pianola and a 30-minute Choral Symphony. Other recent commissions include According to Seneca, and Rigwreck for the award-winning Philadelphian professional chamber choir, The Crossing, The glory of the Lord, written for the Papal visit to Westminster Abbey in September 2010, and To the field of stars, co-commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus, St Jacobs Chamber Choir, Stockholm, and The Netherlands Chamber Choir, premiered in Autumn 2011. 2013 saw the premiere of Ave Dei patris, commissioned by the Tallis Scholars for their 40th anniversary.
April 2014 saw the first performance of his most substantial work to date, the hour-long The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, commissioned by Merton College, Oxford for their 750th anniversary, and which received its North American premiere at Trinity Wall Street, New York, nine days later. In Autumn 2014 the BBC Singers released a disc of his commissions for the group on Signum Records.
Leading the following workshop in EUROPA CANTAT Pécs:
Gabriel Jackson talks to his publisher, Griselda Sherlaw-Johnson (Oxford University Press), about his choral compositions. He explores how composing for choirs across the world, and how the different choral traditions and styles of choirs, affect his writing. Musical examples will be made available and recordings will be played to introduce delegates to his expressive and rich sound-world.
