Heidi Jacob

Heidi Jacob’s music has been described by BBC Magazine as “compositions …of complex mesmerizing beauty,” and by Gramophone Magazine as music with “…forthright expressiveness [that] exposes a multitude of stylistic associations.” Praise for her recent recording on Navona Records of Lilacs with the Kühn Choir of Prague include: “the music is simply breathtaking,” (Nicholas Wright) “…Jacob writes music of imagination and adventure…voices interweave hauntingly… ascending to towering heights,” (Textura), and “Heidi Jacob’s Lilacs opens with Kristýna Fílová’s soaring soprano… Amina Robinson’s narration amid the sublime choral harmonizing.” (Take Effect) 

A Professor of Music at Haverford College, Jacob is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, with a D.M.A. in composition from Temple University. She has performed as a cellist throughout the United States and Europe and has recorded as a cellist and conductor for Capstone Records, Albany Records, and Navona records. Her music has been performed by I Solisti Veneti, Chamber Orchestra First Editions, Argento Ensemble, Earplay, Kühn Choir of Prague, Moravian Philharmonic, Network for New Music, at Tania León’s “Composers Now” Festival, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Festival Osmose in Evere, Belgium, The Keyboard in the 21st Century, an International Conference in Hong Kong, the Pikes Falls Chamber Music Festival and The Stone in New York City, and by violinists Francesco d’orazio, Miranda Cuckson, and Barbara Govatos, cellists Jeffrey Solow, Michal Schmidt, and Thalia Moore, flutists Mimi Stillman, Susanna Loewy, Chelsea Meynig, and Jeffrey Khaner, pianists Charles Abramovic, Marcantonio Barone, Jonathan Levin, and bassoonist Pascal Gallois. 

Recordings of her compositions include: Beneath Winter Light, produced by PARMA Recordings, the Beginning Again on L’Ensemble’s CD Poetry into Song, and untouched by morning and untouched by night on PARMA Recordings’ album INTERSECTIONS. Recent recordings include Lilacs for SATB Choir, solo soprano, and narrator on VOICES OF EARTH AND AIR VOL 5 ON Navona Records with the Kühn Choir of Prague and her Metamorphosis I for viola and piano with violist Brett Deubner and Pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti released on BOWED COLORS 2 from Navona Records. 

The music Jacob co-wrote with Charles Abramovic for the documentary film My Sister Hali won an International Independent Film Gold Winner Award for Original Score and a bronze award by the Latitude Film Awards at the UK International Festival. The Documentaries Without Borders film festival awarded the film an “Exceptional Merit Award” for the “poetic music by Charles Abramovic, Heidi Jacob, and Jeffrey Solow.”