Jacobus de Jager

South African conductor Jacobus de Jager is the Mills Williams Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music and a Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor for 2026–28, in partnership with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. In June he was one of the final seven conductors in the Mahler Competition in Bamberg, where he conducted the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and he is currently a semi-finalist in the Concours de Genève Conducting Competition. He was recently a Conducting Fellow of the 2026 Lucerne Festival Contemporary Conducting Programme, conducting three concerts with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. He has conducted orchestras including the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, The Hallé, Manchester Camerata, Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.