Maestro Jackson recently conducted Massenet’s Werther, and Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess at the Metropolitan Opera. He made his conducting debut in Brussels’ Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie with Don Pasquale, and has since won acclaim in Europe and America with his “first-rate” conducting” (Boston Globe), “impressive command” (Opera News), “surging quality forged by the maestro” and his “love for this sublime music” (Moscow Kultura) and a “triumph, the unquestioned highlight of the season” (Denver Post).
Other conducting highlights at the Metropolitan include the new Richard Jones production of Hänsel und Gretel, Simon Boccanegra, starring Placido Domingo in the title role, and The Queen of Spades. He has conducted Handel’s Messiah with the Gulbenkian Symphony in Lisbon, and led concerts with the Slovenian National Orchestra with famed soprano Deborah Voigt. Other performances include the European premiere of Mark Adamo’s Little Women at the Stadsschouwburg in Bruges, Belgium, Cendrillon and Turn of the Screw with the Siena Music Festival, War and Peace for the Canadian Opera Company, Faust for Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Weber’s Euryanthe at the Glyndebourne Festival, Elektra at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Omaha, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame at the Central City Opera Festival, L’Italiana in Algeri at the Wolf Trap Festival, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West with Kentucky Opera, and Così fan Tutte, Die Zauberflöte and The Love for Three Oranges for tours of Belgium and Germany with the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. He attended Amherst College and the Peabody Conservatory, studying with conducting legends Otto Werner Mueller, Franco Ferrara and Sixten Ehrling. In addition to his native English he speaks Italian, French, Spanish, German, and Russian.