BIOGRAPHY

Heralded by The Diapason magazine as a “Top 20 under 30,” Jacob Gruss is a rising star in the world of organ performance and church music. Based in New York City, Jacob currently serves as Organ Scholar at the iconic Cathedral of St. John the Divine, regularly performing with world-class orchestras and choirs. A senior at Juilliard, studying in the studio of Paul Jacobs, Jacob boasts an impressive performance schedule on many of New York’s renowned instruments. In fall 2025, Jacob will begin studying Organ at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music.

Jacob won the prestigious First Prize and Audience Choice in the 27th Annual Albert Schweitzer Young Professionals Competition. 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.

An avid collaborator, Jacob is the organist of the New Choral Society Orchestra of Scarsdale, NY, and has appeared with The Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Beyond performance, Jacob is also an emerging composer. His recently commissioned Mass of the Immaculate Conception premiered in Irwin, PA, in August 2024. Jacob has been featured in The Diapason magazine, The American Organist magazine, and on WQED-FM Pittsburgh’s Voice of the Arts, where he shared his artistic journey in an interview with Jim Cunningham.

Jacob is a proud recipient of the American Guild of Organists' Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship and was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Robert and Nancy Powell Scholarship of Greenville, SC.

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