Biography

The music of Chicago-based composer Jacob Bancks (b. 1982, Fairmont, Minnesota) has been described as “invitingly lyrical” and “colorfully orchestrated” (The New York Times). Recent works have been commissioned and premiered with the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley, eighth blackbird, the Millennium Chamber Players, and marimba virtuoso Makoto Nakura. Other  commissions and performances have come from the Annapolis Symphony, the New York Youth Symphony, the South Dakota Symphony/Soli Deo Gloria, the International Double Reed Society, the Hanson Institute for American Music, and The Commission Project. His music has been performed by oboist Gordon Hunt, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Lute Song Project, OSSIA New Music, and many others.

A 2008 recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, his other prizes include two BMI Student Composer Awards, a Century Fellowship (University of Chicago), the Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize (Eastman), first prize in the Minnesota Music Teachers’ Association annual competition, a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and a nomination for the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize.

His teachers include Shulamit Ran, Marta Ptaszynska, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and Augusta Read Thomas, and he has participated in masterclasses with Luca Francesconi and Louis Andriessen. His other important mentors are Cliff Colnot, Daniel Paul Horn, and Ray and Sue Sidoti. He holds a Masters degree from Eastman School of Music, where he also studied piano with Vincent Lenti, and he is currently working toward a PhD at the University of Chicago, under a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education. He is the 2008-09 composer-in-residence for the Millennium Chamber Players, and he serves as Director of Music at St. John Berchmans Church, Chicago.

Major projects for 2010-11 include new pieces for Makoto Nakura/Cantori New York, percussionist Melanie Sehman, Pacifica Quartet/members of eighth blackbird/Schola Antiqua of Chicago, and pianist Daniel Paul Horn.