Jakob Bloch Jespersen Biography

The Danish bass-baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and Opera Academy of the Royal Danish Theatre where graduated in 2007.

His operatic engagements include Angelotti in Tosca and Magister in Carl Nielsen’s Maskerade at the Royal Danish Opera, Collatinus in Britten’s The rape of Lucretia and Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at The New Opera, and Marquese d’Obigny in Verdi’s La Traviata at Opera Hedeland.

His many concert performances include Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, St Matthew Passion with Wroclaw Baroque and Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, St John Passions with Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bach’s Magnificat with Vokalharmonin, Handel’s Messiah with Leipzig Chamber Orchestra, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Virgine with Concerto Copenhagen, Köthener Trauermusik with Lautten Compagney and Teixeira’s Te Deum with Orquestra Barroca da Casa Da Musica.

Jakob regularly works with conductors such as Giordano Bellincampi, Olof Boman, Laurence Cummings, Adam Fischer, Paul Hillier, Wolfgang Katschner, Andrew Lawrence-King, Stephen Layton, Fredrik Malmberg, Andrea Marcon, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Tobias Ringborg, Morten Schönwandt, Morten Schuldt Jensen and Thomas Søndergaard.

Recent engagements include Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Opera Hedeland, Frère Laurent in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Abbott in Brittens’ Curly river at Copenhagen Opera Festival, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas at Dublin Summer Festival, semi-staged performances of Gurnemanz in Parsifal in Denmark, Stockhausen’s Stimmung in Carnegie Hall New York with the conductor Paul Hillier, staged performances of Schubert’s Winterreise, orchestral songs by Wolff with Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart’s Mass in C minor with Aalborg Symphony Orchestra as well as in Malmö, a staged production of various Bach Cantatas at Spitalfields Festival in London, Jesus in Arvo Pärt’s Passio in Detmold, concerts with music by Buxtehude in Potsdam, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Leipziger Kammerorchester in Copenhagen, Handel’s Messiah with the conductor Stephen Layton, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio as well as Cantata BWV 36 in Bergen Cathedral, Mozart’s Requiem in Rønne, Handel’s Chandos Anthems and St Matthew Passion in Utrecht as well as in Copenhagen, and Bach’s Mass in b Minor in Copenhagen with Concerto Copenhagen as well as in various venues in Sweden and Finland with the Swedish Baroque Orchestra.

Engagements in the season 2016/17 included Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at the Royal Danish Opera, Masses and Cantatas by Bach at the Bachfest Leipzig, Handel’s Messiah with South Jutland Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Stephen Layton, Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Copenhagen, Utrecht, Zwolle and Amsterdam, Bach’s Magnificat and Easter Oratorio in Bodoe and Benoît / Alcindoro in Puccini’s La bohème at Opera Hedeland.

Jacob Bloch Jespersen has received the Danish Music Critics’ Award 2013