The Danish bass-baritone, Jakob Bloch Jespersen, acquired already as a boy his fundamental musical education, as well as his interest in singing, from his membership of the Copenhagen Boy's Choir. This led to studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, from which he attained his diploma in 2004, and subsequently to further studies at the Opera Academy of the Royal Danish Theatre, from which he graduated in 2007.
In 2006, Jakob Bloch Jespersen made his debut at the Royal Danish Theatre as Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca. Furthermore, he has participated in the DVD and TV recordings of Carl Nielsen's Maskarade as Magister, and played the role of Collatinus in Benjamin Britten's Rape of Lucretia at the intimate stage Takkelloftet as well as numerous contemporary operas produced by Holland House Stalingrad and Corona La Balance/Figura Ensemble Story Of A Mother.
In spite of his young age, Jakob Bloch Jespersen has made his mark as a vocalist, with a repertoire stretching from baroque music to first performances of contemporary composers. This has lead him to a number of the leading concert halls of the world, such as Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, The Carnegie Hall in New York and Sala Sao Paulo in Brazil and to international festivals for early and contemporary music, among others Ambronay Festival in France, Stimmen Festival in Germany, and Sacrum Profanum in Poland.
In the early repertoire, Jakob Bloch Jespersen has worked with Concerto Copenhagen and Tallina Baroque Orchestra on several occasions under the direction, among others, of Paul Hillier and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. In the modern repertoire, he has worked, among others in co-operation with ensembles such as The Theatre of Voices, The Figura Ensemble, The Athelas Ensemble, and I Solisti del Vento in works by Weill, Cage, Luciano Berio, Crumb, Stockhausen, Part and Lang.
Moreover, Jakob Bloch Jespersen has performed a long list of the larger oratorio works with several of the Danish regional orchestras, Danish Radio Sinfonietta, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Leipziger Kammerorchester and Collegium Musicum Copenhagen, with conductors such as Adam Fischer, Michael Schonwandt, Jim Wang, Thomas Søndergaard, Morten Schuldt Jensen, Tobias Ringborg and Giordano Bellincampi.
Jakob Bloch Jespersen appears on several CD-recordings, among others Bach Cantatas with Conterto Copenhagen and Anne Sofie von Otter (Deutsche Gramophone) David Lang Little Matchgirl Passion with The Theatre of Voices (Harmonia Mundi), Weill Von Tod Im Wald and Berliner Requiem with the Flemmish Radio Choir and I Solisti del Vento (Glossa) and Heinrich Schutz' Historia Der Geburt Jesu Christi or Lukas Passion with Ars Nova and Concerto Copenhagen (Dacapo).
In addition, Jakob Bloch Jespersen has a particular interest in doing recitals, and he regularly performs several of the major works of the lieder-genre, such as Schumann's Liederkreis Op. 39 and Schubert's Winterreise.
|