Abela

Jacob Abela (Pianist and Composer; Scholarship Recipient, Australian National Academy of Music)

Jacob Abela is a Melbourne-based pianist and composer born in NSW, and is currently a scholarship recipient at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), studying piano with Timothy Young. Jacob completed his Bachelor of Music (Performance) in 2012, studying piano with Stephanie McCallum at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Jacob has been working intensively with 2014 ANAM Fellowship recipient Georgia Ioakimidis-MacDougall on presenting a performance of Messiaen’s epic Des Canyons aux étoiles… at ANAM in November 2014, where Jacob appeared as soloist under the baton of Fabian Russell. In early 2014, Jacob received an ArtStart grant from the Australia Council for the Arts. This grant has funded projects such as recordings of three commissioned works with American flautist Meerenai Shim and a tour of Lachlan Hughes’ extended work cadence loops which was commissioned by Jacob.

Festival credits include the 2013 and 2014 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, 2013 Metropolis Festival, 2012 Banff Summer Arts Festival (Canada), Steve Reich’s 2012 Sydney Opera House Residency with Synergy Percussion, 2012 Sydney Festival (in the Helpmann- nominated show Anatomy of an Afternoon), 2011 Verge Festival, 2010 ISCM World New Music Days, and 2009 Stockhausen Licht Festival.

Jacob frequently engages composers for new music, and performs their music regularly. His passion for and dedication to contemporary music led him to be chosen on two occassions, as one of two pianists worldwide, as a Fellow for the 2013 and 2014 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festivals. Jacob has also premiered a large number of new works with the Volta Collective - a group of composers and performers founded in 2009 by Jacob and his fellow students at the Sydney Conservatorium.

As a composer, Jacob has been commissioned by Bricolage Collective (percussionists Kaylie Melville and Rebecca Lloyd-Jones) and has been engaged by musicians and ensembles such as Callum G’Froerer (trumpet) and the Penny Quartet for future commissions. Jacob has appeared as soloist with the Australian National Academy of Music Orchestra (2014, Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 2), Melbourne Youth Orchestra (2011, solo ondes Martenot in Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie) and the Sydney Conservatorium Modern Music Ensemble (2012, Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra).

Webpage - jacobabela.com