Pierre Jalbert

Earning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967) has developed a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2007 Stoeger Award, given biennially “in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory”, and a 2010 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Jalbert has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources, from plainchant melodies to natural phenomena.  His music has been performed worldwide, with four Carnegie Hall performances of his orchestral music, including the Houston Symphony’s Carnegie Hall premiere of his orchestral work, big sky, in 2006. Other major works for orchestra include In Aeternam (2000), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonia Sacra (2001), written for the California Symphony; Les espaces infinis (2001), written for the Albany Symphony, Chamber Symphony (2004), commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Fire and Ice (2007), commissioned for the Oakland East Bay, Marin, and Santa Rosa Symphonies through Meet the Composer Foundation’s Magnum Opus Project, Autumn Rhapsody (2008), commissioned by the Vermont Symphony, and Shades of Memory (2011) premiered by the Houston Symphony.  Recent orchestral performances include those by the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under Marin Alsop.  He has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (2002-2005), California Symphony (1999-2002), and Radyo Dinle.

Music in the Loft in Chicago (2003).  Select chamber music commissions and performances include those of the Emerson, Ying,  Borromeo, Maia,  Enso, Chiara, and Escher String Quartets.

Jalbert is Professor of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and he serves as one of the artistic directors of Musiqa, a Houston-based contemporary chamber ensemble.  His music is published by Schott Music.

Pierre Jalbert’s world premiere, Preludes for piano, was recently performed by Brian Connelly at the Vermont Music Teachers’ Association Quad State Convention in Burlington, VT on October 2nd and 3rd. On October 25, Jalbert’s Into the Tempest for chamber orchestra was performed by the OCL – Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Christian Macelaru, conductor, at the Salle Métropole in Lausanne, Switzerland. On November 15, Jalbert’s Piano Trio No. 1 will be performed by the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio as part of the Chamber Music Tulsa at Williams Theatre in Tulsa, OK. And on January 29, Jalbert’s Street Antiphons for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano will be offered as part of Da Camera’s season featuring the Montrose Trio with Richie Hawley, clarinet, at Cullen Theater – Wortham Theater Center.