Jake Landau

Jake Landau was born in 1995 in New York City and raised in Long Island and Connecticut. He began formally taking composition lessons from theater composer and lyricist Lawrence Rosen in middle school and soon entered The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, where, upon testing out of the music theory curriculum, he studied composition and piano. During this time, he also participated in programs at the New York Youth Symphony and the New York Philharmonic as a teaching artist intern.

In 2013, he began his undergraduate studies at Juilliard with Pulitzer-, Grammy-, and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano. Landau, then 17 years old, is the youngest person ever accepted to study with Mr. Corigliano. In the summer of 2014, he was the youngest Composition Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky. In the fall of 2015, he spent three months in Reykjavik, Iceland, working at the indie record label Bedroom Community and its in-house recording studio, Greenhouse Studios. After graduating from Juilliard, he received his master’s degree with first class honours from the University of Oxford, where his most notable commission was a piece for the Crown of the Netherlands premiered at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. While at Oxford, he wrote his thesis on the history and technique of translating operas and performed on early keyboards with period-instrument ensemble The Bate Players.

Landau has received commissions from, and/or been performed by: The New York Philharmonic, Houston Grand Opera, Premiere Division Ballet, and more in venues such as David Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall), Carnegie Hall, and New York Live Arts Theater. In November of 2016, he entered the world of choral publication with his piece Ayres, for two-part chorus and piano, published by G. Schirmer as part of the Judith Clurman G. Schirmer Choral Series. One year later, he became the youngest-ever winner of the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, leading to a publication of his orchestral opener Hardware Love by Edition Peters.

Landau is fluent in software programs Sibelius, Logic, and Sound Forge and has worked with and for such diverse musicians as Rihanna, Valgeir Sigurðsson, and John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin). He is active as a composer, lyricist, librettist, conductor, electronic music producer, and harpsichordist. Outside of classical music, he has collaborated on pop productions and multimedia projects for festivals and corporations including Iceland Airwaves and MSNBC, contributing strings and beats and often performing on keyboards. He has won numerous awards for his compositions and has produced a diverse output of orchestral, chamber, vocal, electronic, dance, theatrical, and solo music.