BIOGRAPHY

Named a “Top 20 under 30” by The Diapason Magazine, JACOB GRUSS is a fourth-year undergraduate organist at The Juilliard School studying in the studio of Paul Jacobs. Based in New York City, Jacob serves as Organ Scholar at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, performing regularly with world-class orchestras, choirs, and musicians. At Juilliard, Jacob boasts an impressive performance schedule including concerts on many of New York’s renowned instruments.

Jacob won First Prize and Audience Choice in the 27th Annual Albert Schweitzer Young Professionals Competition in Hartford, CT. He also placed first in the Westmorland Symphony Orchestra's Young Artist Competition, first in the Cassel Competition (Harrisburg, PA), and was a winner in the 2023 AGO Quimby Northeast Regional Organ Competition.

Jacob is an organist in the New Choral Society Orchestra of Scarsdale, NY. Under the direction of Dr. John T. King, Jacob has performed multiple works with the group including Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. This past winter, Jacob performed with The Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.

In the Summer of 2024, Jacob was a featured artist on WQED-FM Pittsburgh’s “Voice of the Arts” with interviewer Jim Cunningham.

A budding composer, Jacob's output includes liturgical music including his recently commissioned Mass of the Immaculate Conception, which premiered in Irwin, PA in August 2024.

Jacob is a proud recipient of the American Guild of Organists' Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship, and was the inaugural recipient of the Robert and Nancy Powell Scholarship (Greenville, SC). In 2022, Jacob was awarded the AGO’s Student Commission Grant, premiering “Earth-Waves” by Boston-based composer Owen Johnson.

In addition to organ, Jacob studies Conducting, Composition, Improvisation, and Harpsichord. In his free time, Jacob enjoys travel, opera, biking, art, and golf.