Artist Biographies

Christopher Warren-Green

conductor laureate & music adviser

Following twelve years as Music Director of the Charlotte Symphony, Christopher Warren-Green now serves as Conductor Laureate and Artistic Adviser. Maestro WarrenGreen is also Music Director and Principal Conductor of London Chamber Orchestra in the UK and Chair of the Foundation for Young Musicians.

Over the last 50 years Maestro Warren-Green has conducted eminent orchestras around the world. In North America he has conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit, Houston, St Louis, Toronto, Milwaukee, Seattle and Vancouver symphony orchestras, and Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra. In the UK, he has worked with the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National orchestras.

During the 2022–23 season, Maestro Warren-Green returns to Charlotte to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Charlotte Chapter of the American Guild of Organists with Saint-Saëns’s breathtaking Organ Symphony, featuring Paul Jacobs as soloist. In December Warren-Green leads the Charlotte Symphony in his world-renowned interpretation of Handel’s Messiah.

In addition to his international commitments, he has been invited to conduct at the wedding services of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2005, TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey in 2011 and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2018. He conducted the London Chamber Orchestra on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday and the Philharmonia Orchestra for Her Majesty’s 90th birthday concert at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as King Charles III’s 60th birthday concert in Buckingham Palace.

A violinist by training, Warren-Green began his career at the age of 19 as concertmaster of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, followed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, having been a Professor there for eight years, and has appeared and presented numerous times on television and radio, most notably for the BBC Proms. He has recorded extensively for Sony, Philips, Virgin EMI, Chandos, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, and records with the London Chamber Orchestra for Signum Classics.

Paul Jacobs

organ

Heralded as “one of the major musicians of our time” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker and as “America’s leading organ performer” by The Economist, the internationally celebrated organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical mastery with an unusually large repertoire, both old and new. He has performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the fifty United States. The only organist ever to have won a Grammy Award — in 2011 for Messiaen’s towering “Livre du SaintSacrément,”— Mr. Jacobs is an eloquent champion of his instrument both in the United States and abroad.

No other organist is repeatedly invited as soloist to perform with prestigious orchestras, thus making him a pioneer in the movement for the revival of symphonic music featuring the organ. Mr. Jacobs regularly appears with the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Toledo Symphony, and Utah Symphony, among others.

In the 2021-22 season Paul Jacobs made debuts with the Warsaw Philharmonic in the Lou Harrison Organ Concerto led by Alexander Shelley, and with the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic both in recital and with the Horatio Parker Organ Concerto and Guilmant’s Organ Symphony in D Minor led by Giancarlo Guerrero. He returns to the Chicago Symphony for Handel Organ Concerti led by Dame Jane Glover, and debuts with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in an organ spectacular featuring the Jongen Symphonie Concertante and Paulus Grand Concerto conducted by Gil Rose. In recital he can be heard with the Pacific Symphony, Parlance Chamber Concerts, the Eccles Organ Festival, and with the Bethlehem Music Series.

During the 2020-21 season Mr. Jacobs performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nezet-Seguin for their digital streaming series including the Poulenc Organ Concerto, as well as chamber versions of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Das Lied von der Erde; with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Most for the Poulenc Concerto, and the Jackson (TN) Symphony. He appeared in recitals with the Madison Symphony, Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota, and in Sun City, AZ.

Mr. Jacobs studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, doublemajoring with John Weaver for organ and Lionel Party for harpsichord, and at Yale University with Thomas Murray. He joined the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2003, and was named chairman of the organ department in 2004, one of the youngest faculty appointees in the school’s history. He received Juilliard’s prestigious William Schuman Scholar’s Chair in 2007. In addition to his concert and teaching appearances, Mr. Jacobs is a frequent performer at festivals across the world, and has appeared on American Public Media’s Performance Today, Pipedreams, and Saint Paul Sunday, as well as NPR’s Morning Edition, ABC-TV’s World News Tonight, and BBC Radio 3. In 2017 he received an honorary doctorate from Washington and Jefferson College.