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Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda in 1962. After three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Jackson studied composition at the Royal College of Music, first with Richard Blackford and later with John Lambert, gaining his BMus in 1983. While at the College he was awarded the R.O. Morris Prize for Composition in 1981 and 1983, also winning the Theodore Holland Award in 1981. In 1992 he was awarded an Arts Council Bursary.
His music has been performed and broadcast throughout Europe and the USA, and in recent years has been heard in Cape Town, Ho Chi Minh City, Kiev, Kuwait, Sydney, Tokyo and Vancouver. His works have been presented at many festivals in the UK and beyond, including Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, ThreeTwo (New York), Lek Art 2000 & 2004 (Culemborg), ppIANISSIMO (Sofia), Haarlem Choir Biennale, Europa Cantat, Festival Vancouver, Festival ProBaltica, as well as Spitalfields and Meltdown in London. His liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of many of Britain's leading cathedral and collegiate choirs. In 2003 he won the liturgical category at the inaugural British Composer Awards.
His music is being recorded with increasing frequency with works available on NMC, Metier, Usk, GFR, Lammas, Priory, Telarc, York Ambisonic, the British Music Label. In 2005 Delphian Records released a disc devoted to his choral music and in December 2007 they released a Christmas CD including Jackson’s The Magi. Recent instrumental commissions include Kenidjack, for alto saxophone, strings and percussion, works for guitarist Tom Kerstens, organist Michael Bonaventure, and Lunar Sax Quartet, for whom he wrote LM-7: Aquarius.
Latest projects include a string quartet for the Psophos Quartet commissioned by the Presteigne Festival, and several major choral commissions: Requiem for the Vasari Singers, The Spacious Firmament for the John Armitage Memorial Trust, premièred by the BBC Singers and Onyx Brass and Ave, Regina Caelorum for The Sixteen and Tom Kerstens (guitar).
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