Paul Jackson is a pianist, conductor, lecturer, musicologist, and education consultant, based in Cambridge, UK. He studied Music at the University of East Anglia, specialising in piano performance under John York, and Music Performance Studies at City University, specialising in conducting, with Alan Hazeldine at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He went on to co-found Innererklang Music Theatre, an Arts Council-funded contemporary music theatre company that toured Great Britain between 1985 and 1989. He holds a PhD in musicology and a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education, both from Anglia Ruskin University, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Following posts at the Royal College of Music and the University of Hertfordshire, he was Head of Music and Performing Arts and Director of Music and Performance for Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge from 1998 until 2018. His teaching spans performance studies, composition, music technology, musicology, music theatre and opera, and employability preparation, at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels.
An enthusiastic exponent of contemporary music, he has commissioned and performed many new works by composers including Steve Martland, Graham Fitkin, Alex Paxton, Julio d’Escriván, Simon Fell, Kevin Flanagan and Simone Spagnolo. As a pianist, he has performed as a soloist, and in a number of collaborations, most notably with saxophonist Damian Royannais, marimba player Daniela Geneva, thereminist and ondes Martenot player Charlie Draper, and with the Mifune Tsuji Trio.
As a conductor, he has a wide range of experience in orchestral, choral and operatic works. He has worked extensively in university contexts, directing City University Symphony Orchestra, the University of Hertfordshire Orchestra, Anglia Ruskin Orchestra and Chorus, and the contemporary music group Anglia Sinfonia. He has also directed the opera companies Welwyn Opera and Anglia Opera, and has conducted for Opera East. He is currently Musical Director for Haslingfield Choir and Orchestra.
He lectures for ACE Cultural Tours, and is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He is also a leading expert on the life and music of the Australian composer Percy Grainger, and is Editor of The Grainger Journal and President of the Percy Grainger Society, based in New York.