Ingrid Maria Jacoby performs throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America both in recital and as a soloist with some of the world’s major orchestras. Ms Jacoby has won numerous awards and competitions, including the Artists Presentation Award, the Steinway Hall Artists Prize, the Baldwin National Piano Competition, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and the Concert Artists Guild Award, resulting in a highly-acclaimed debut recital at Carnegie Hall. Since moving to England, Ms Jacoby has performed at the major London venues with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.  She has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Sir Charles MacKerras, Leonard Slatkin, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Walter Susskind, and Lord (Yehudi) Menuhin.  She has performed solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Fairfield Hall, and, at the invitation of HHR Prince and Princess of Wales, at Apsley House.  A frequent performer at music festivals such as the Aldeburgh, Aspen, Covent Garden, and Tuscan Sun Festivals, Ms Jacoby has also given concerto performances in the Mozarteum at the Salzburg Music Festival.

Her many recordings include a CD of Beethoven piano works voted the Classic FM “Top Classic Release” in 1995; a 1998 world-premiere recording of Korngold’s solo piano pieces; a 2001 solo recording of Russian piano music, which was named one Gramophone critic’s “Pick of the Year”; a 2002 recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras of the Shostakovich and Ustvolskaya piano concerti which earned the highest commendation of the American Record Guide for that year; and a very popular 2005 recording, also with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, of the Grieg and Schumann piano concerti.

Ms Jacoby is a Steinway Artist and a member of the Steinway Hall of Fame.  In the United States, she was awarded, in the same year as Jessye Norman and Shirley Maclaine, a Career Life Award by The National Society of Arts and Letters.

Ms Jacoby comes from a family with deep musical roots. Her great-great-great-grandfather was the pianist, composer, and Prussian nobleman, Prince Louis Ferdinand (1772 – 1806), to whom Beethoven dedicated his Third Piano Concerto.  Prince Louis Ferdinand was the nephew of Frederick the Great, himself the composer of the famous theme which J S Bach used in his sublime Musical Offering.

Ms Jacoby’s future plans include recording piano concerti in July, 2009, with Dimitry Liss (conductor) and the Russian National Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. In Spring, 2010, she will give recitals in ten major cities throughout China.

SAMPLE REVIEWS

“... clear articulation, bright tone, unequivocal phrasing, colour, and meaningful gradation of dynamics. And one felt at all times that Miss Jacoby’s interests were centred on expressivity rather than mere technical accomplishment.  Her Mozart was so engaging ... the communicative impulse was apparent in everything she played ...”   NEW YORK TIMES

“... superb technique and tone colour ... warm, poised performance that did not lack spirit or perspective ...”   LOS ANGELES TIMES

“... considerable vitality and breadth of expression ... Miss Jacoby contributed a massive performance of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, as inevitable in direction as a river in flood.”    DAILY TELEGRAPH

“... considerable musicality and pianism ... She followed with Debussy’s Jardins Sous La Pluie in a deftly pointed performance, delicately pedalled with assured control of the difficult inner tremolandi. Very impressive.”    THE GUARDIAN

“... Jacoby’s Mozart K304 came off with a sadness under the gaiety that tugged at your heart ... two turbo-charged movements from Brahms’s G Minor Piano Quartet had an energy and commitment that nearly knocked your socks off.”    EVENING STANDARD

“… the remarkable Ingrid Jacoby, giving stunning accounts of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Prokofiev’s daunting seventh Sonata. Brilliant technique, but also artistry … she so clarifies textures, making the writing seem far more pianistic than usual, yet retaining vivid pictorial detail and the tension and excitement …” THE PENGUIN GUIDE