Winner of the 2015 Aspen Conducting Prize, London-born conductor George Jackson came to international attention after stepping in at short notice with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducting the Austrian premiere of Michael Jarrell’s Ombres. Highlights in 2018 include his company debut in Opera Holland Park’s new production of Così Fan Tutte. In 2017 he made his Hamburg State Opera debut, conducting Immer weiter by Irene Galindo Quero and Jesse Boekman.

George has conducted, among others, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Haydn Orchestra di Bolzano e Trento, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2010, George founded the Vienna-based Speculum Musicae Opera Company, conducting new productions of Pergolesi La serva padrona and Charpentier David et Jonathas. He has also conducted performances with the Pro Arte Orchestra Vienna of Die Zauberflöte, Der Freischütz, La Traviata, Fidelio, Turandot, Der Fliegende Holländer and La Bohème.

George participated in international master classes, where his teachers included Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur and David Robertson. He has developed over the years a deep knowledge of the wider opera repertoire by assisting his mentors Robert Spano and Yves Abel in international houses including the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Opéra National de Paris, Theater an der Wien and the Aspen Opera Theater Center, with titles such as Wozzeck, I Capuleti e I Montecchi, Carmen, Billy Budd, La Fille du Régiment, Hänsel und Gretel, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Madama Butterfly, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Tannhäuser. An alumnus of the conservatories of Vienna, Weimar and Trinity College Dublin, George furthered his studies at the Lucerne Festival Academy, Dartington Festival, Bayreuth Festival and the Aspen Music Festival, where he was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and the David A. Karetsky Memorial Fellowship.

A prizewinner at the 2012 ‘Jeunesses Musicales’ Conducting Competition in Bucharest, George is a Help Musicians UK ‘Emerging Excellence’ Artist, and has received numerous scholarships from organisations including the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Tillett Trust, Janeczek Foundation, Irish Arts Council, Richard Wagner Foundation, the Roderick Brydon Memorial Trust and the Sir Charles Mackerras Fellowship in Conducting at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire. He has just completed a year as a member of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung’s ‘Akademie Musiktheater heute’ scheme for young opera professionals.