Composers Lab

For Italo Calvino, who created systems of systems of systems of memory.
For Antonio Vivaldi, who cut into silence like a razor.
For Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, whose looking glass was most deliciously twisted.
And for that moment in the rickety hall of mirrors where, surrounded by my image projected into infinity, I caught a glimpse of a shadow of some unimaginable horror. A strange sense of déjà vu… a second later, the shadow had vanished.

(performed by the Yale Philharmonia, conducted by Shinik Hahm)


My reflection ran away with my eyes

Promises (2014), for orchestra

Rock Island Line (Quad City Symphony/Mark Russell Smith, cond.)

Praised as “colorfully orchestrated, invitingly lyrical” (The New York Times) and “highly caffeinated” (The Boston Globe), the music of composer Jacob Bancks (b. 1982, Fairmont, Minnesota) engages and inspires musicians and audiences around the world.

At the core of his output are works for orchestra, with performances by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the Sarajevo Philharmonic, the Annapolis Symphony, the South Dakota Symphony, the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony, and the New York Youth Symphony. Other ensembles that have performed his work include eighth blackbird, Pacifica Quartet, American Modern Ensemble, Schola Antiqua of Chicago, Cantori New York, Eastman Wind Ensemble, OSSIA New Music, Kobe (Japan) City Philharmonic Chorus, Kyoto Gewandhaus Chor, and Spektral Quartet. Among his most significant projects are repeat and close collaborations with marimbist Makoto Nakura, mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley, pianist Kuang-Hao Huang, the United States Marine Band, and the Quad City Symphony.

Passionate about connecting with and developing audiences for concert music, he is a frequent commentator on WVIK public radio and serves as program annotator for the Quad City Symphony. Recordings of his music have been released by American Modern Recordings and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, American Public Media’s Performance Today, and WFMT-Chicago Classical Radio. He has earned awards, honors, and commissions from the Minnesota Commissioning Club, American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the U.S. Department of Education, Sigma Alpha Iota international music fraternity, Soli Deo Gloria, the International Double Reed Society, the Hanson Institute for American Music, and the Commission Project.

A student of Shulamit Ran, Marta Ptaszynska, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and Augusta Read Thomas, he also participated in masterclasses with Luca Francesconi and Louis Andreissen. His other mentors include Cliff Colnot, Daniel Horn, and Ray and Sue Sidoti. He holds degrees from the University of Chicago, Eastman School of Music, and Wheaton College (IL) and serves as Assistant Professor of music theory and composition at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL.