Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon

Concert Season Funding

Mark Eliot Jacobs

Composer Mark Eliot Jacobs, born in 1960, lives in southern Oregon’s Rogue River Valley. He is a frequent participant in the musical life of the valley: principal trombonist in the Rogue Valley Symphony, and musician with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among other engagements. He is an adjunct instructor at Southern Oregon University where he has taught in the areas of music theory, composition, and low brass. Mark holds the degree Doctor of Music from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in Music Composition (1986).

Dr. Jacobs has written a wide range of music, including orchestra, band, musical theater, and chamber music. His tone poem Las Ranas de Katanchel was premiered by the Rogue Valley Symphony in November 2010. It is currently in production for the 2013 Navona Records compact disc release Spellbound, recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra. The 2011 production of Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle at Southern Oregon University featured his original musical score. The Medford Mail Tribune declared it an “amazing collection of original compositions."

In 2012 he completed The Orchard City: Medford, Oregon 1913 under a commission from the Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon for its Silver Jubilee - 25th Anniversary Concert Season.  For information about his work, click here.

Gilles Apap

Acclaimed violinist Gilles Apap has toured worldwide and has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Berlin Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Istanbul Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, the Tokyo Mozart Players and many other prestigious ensembles.  In addition to an extensive concert schedule, he has conducted master classes and workshops for the Music Academy of the West, Indiana University, Lisbon University, the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp and the Malmo Music Academy, among others.

Gilles Apap was born in Algeria and raised in Nice, France. He studied at the Conservatoire de Musique and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Winner of the Contemporary Music Prize at the 1985 International Menuhin Competition, Apap gained the attention of the great violinist and pedagogue Yehudi Menuhin who invited Apap to perform for the Enuscu Foundation in Berlin. The performance took place the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Apap served as Concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra for more than 10 years. He has lived in California since 1986.

Following his performances with the Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon, he will appear at the Miami Piano Festival and will play with the String Academy of Indiana University at Carnegie Hall/Zankel Hall.

A gifted artist fluent in diverse musical genres, Gilles Apap is known for his extraordinary versatility, interpretative skills and an unparalleled ability to integrate musical styles and traditions, from Gypsy fiddling to flamenco music and from Irish folk music and jazz to standard classical repertoire.  For more information about Gilles Apap, click here.

Gilles Apap is represented by Latitude45 Arts Promotion, Inc., Montreal, Canada.