Isaiah Jackson

Isaiah Allen Jackson (born 22 January 1945) is an African-American conductor who served a seven-year term as conductor of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, of which he has been named Conductor Emeritus. He was the first African-American to be appointed to a music directorship in the Boston area.Dr. Jackson currently teaches at the Berklee College of Music, the Harvard Extension School, and the Longy School of Music.

Isaiah Jackson was born in a predominantly black neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, the son of an orthopedic surgeon (also named Isaiah Allen Jackson) and his wife Alma Alverta Jackson née Norris. His grandfather was also a surgeon. Arthur Ashe was one of his childhood friends.

When Jackson was 2 years old, he fell on a milk bottle and severed the tendons of his wrist. His father prescribed music lessons for therapy, which he began at age 4, showing immediate dedication and aptitude. From age 14, he studied at Putney, a progressive, integrated and academically intense private boarding school near Brattleboro in Vermont. During his time there, he traveled with his high school class to the former Soviet Union. He also took part in a picket of the local Woolworth's store in support of the lunch counter sit-ins that were happening in the South, for equality and equal access for African-Americans.

Jackson studied Russian history and literature at Harvard University, from which he graduated cum laude in 1966. While there, he had the opportunity to conduct Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte, which helped him decide to pursue music as a career. Subsequently, he went to Stanford University and received his M.A. in music in 1969. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Fontainebleau, France, before going to the Juilliard School in New York City, from which he graduated D.M.A. in 1973. He also studied at Aspen, Colorado and Tanglewood. At Harvard, he is a Fellow in the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute.

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