“[Jamason's playing of Bach displayed] the careful, due balance of objective detachment and lofty passion.”
—Los Angeles Times
Corey Jamason is a GRAMMY-nominated harpsichordist whose playing of Bach has been described in the Los Angeles Times as displaying "the careful, due balance of objective detachment and lofty passion." He joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory in 2001, where he holds the school’s Distinguished Chair in Historical Performance and is professor of harpsichord.
Jamason appears frequently with American Bach Soloists, with whom he is principal keyboardist and co-director of the ABS Academy held each summer at the Conservatory. He has performed with a variety of ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, Yale Spectrum, Musica Pacifica, El Mundo, and Camerata Pacifica for whom he directed a series of concerts for several years in Santa Barbara.
Recordings include performances with American Bach Soloists, violinist Gilles Apap, El Mundo, and recorder player Astrid Andersson. He is a contributing author to the History of Performance, published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press.
Born in New York City, Jamason has been fascinated with baroque music ever since he was a young piano student attempting to imitate Glenn Gould. Jamason received degrees in music from SUNY-Purchase, Yale University, and the Early Music Institute at Indiana University where he received a D.M. degree.
COURSES TAUGHT
- Baroque Ensemble, Director
- Baroque Dance
- Baroque/Jazz Improv
- Continuo Playing
- Introduction to Performance Practice
- Performance Practice: Classical Era
- Harpsichord Class
EDUCATION
- DM, Indiana University
- MM, Yale University
- BFA, State University of New York, Purchase
ENSEMBLES
- Theatre Comique
- American Bach Soloists, 1999–Present
- San Francisco Symphony
- Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
- Los Angeles Opera
- Musica Angelica
- El Mundo
What is your hometown?
New York, NY
What are you passionate about outside of music?
Politics, reading fiction and poetry, and travel.
Who were your major teachers?
Richard Rephann at the Yale School of Music, Elisabeth Wright at Indiana University, and Anthony Newman at SUNY Purchase.
What was a turning point in your career?
Discovering Bach cantatas and other vocal works on period instruments while an undergraduate piano major. This led to the harpsichord and a life-long adventure and fascination with continuo playing and historically informed performance.
What is your daily practice routine?
Ideally, an hour of warm-up early in the morning, a break, followed by several two-hour sessions separated by breaks in between for the remainder of the day.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
A difficult choice…but likely J.S. Bach, François Couperin, and Mozart.
From a music history perspective, what year and city are most important to you?
1730s, Leipzig.
What are your academic publications?
The Performer and the Composer, The Cambridge History of Musical Performance, 2012; and currently working on an article on late 19th century musical theatre performance practice for Oxford Handbooks Online.
What recordings can we hear you on?
1685 and the Art of Ian Howel, American Bach Soloists
Die höfische Blockflöte, Cornetto-Verlag
The Kingdoms of Castille, Sono Luminus
What Artemisia Heard, Sono Luminus
What is your unrealized project?
Currently working on several recording projects including The Goldberg Variations.
