Cortona Sessions for New Music

An accomplished conductor, educator, and writer, Jacob Wallace is an emergent personality in the performance of contemporary instrumental music. His efforts to present innovative and approachable programming of new works have brought modern trends to atypical places, with performances being lauded by audiences and professionals alike. Ensembles under his direction have presented world, national, and regional premieres by such composers as Rusty Banks, John Mackey, Michael Markowski, Jonathan Newman, and David Rakowski, among others, with new works by Steven Bryant, D.J. Sparr, and Kevin Wilt scheduled for the 2015-2016 season.

 

Dr. Wallace is currently on the faculty of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma, where he serves as Director of Instrumental Activities. In this capacity, he conducts and supervises instrumental ensembles; teaches coursework in conducting, literature, and education; and administrates the Instrumental Division of the Department of Music as a whole. Among his active efforts at Southeastern is the new music initiative projekt (n), which engages student musicians directly with composers in collaborations on new works for wind ensemble. His writings on music have been published in six volumes of GIA’s Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series and he has become known for a series of engaging program notes, commissioned directly from a number of composers, which have helped fresh audiences understand new works on their first listening.

 

Dr. Wallace holds the degree Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Georgia. He also has degrees from Baylor University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His principal conducting teachers have been John Lynch, Kevin Sedatole, and Carolyn Barber.  In his free time, he enjoys food and beverage culture and writing twitter updates that always seem to be five characters too long.