René Jacobs Awarded 2024 Bremen Music Festival Prize

Jacobs, who will lead Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the festival on September 5, will be honored in a private ceremony

The Belgian conductor and early-music specialist René Jacobs has been named as the recipient of this year's Bremen Music Festival Prize at the Musikfest Bremen. He will receive the award in a private reception following his performance at the festival, in which he will lead the B'Rock Orchestra, the Zurich Singing Academy, and soloists in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.

"René Jacobs has been one of the dominant protagonists of the Flemish-Dutch original sound movement for decades," the Bremen Music Festival Prize jury said. "Through his pioneering spirit and his in-depth study of scores and historical sources, he teaches works from early Baroque to romanticism."

"With a sure sense for the balance of power and a consequent balance between all participants, he creates directional, tension-filled interpretations that allow for always guaranteed audibility in instrumental-vocal happenings, breaking up traditional listening habits and bringing up details that are previously hidden or unheard."

Jacobs began his early music education as a choirboy at St Bhavo Cathedral in Ghent. Despite studying Classical Philology, his interest in the early-music movement was sparked by figures including Alfred Deller, Gustav Leonhardt, and the Kujiken brothers.

Having established a reputation as a fine countertenor, Jacobs founded Concerto Vocale in 1977, which featured a number of singers who later cultivated solo careers.

A conductor of opera from early Baroque to Rossini, Jacobs has appeared routinely at Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Theater an der Wien (Vienna), Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels), Salzburger Festspiele, and the Festival of Aix-en-Provence.

A prolific recording artist, Jacobs is credited on more than 260 recordings. He is closely associated with the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, where he was Artistic Director from 1996 to 2009.