Faculty Profiles

Jacob Harrison serves as the newly appointed director of orchestral activities and associate professor of music at Texas State University. In addition to leading the orchestra program, Dr. Harrison also conducts the major student opera productions in the School of Music.

Dr. Harrison comes to Texas State from Iowa State University, where he served as the director of orchestral activities and taught advanced conducting. In 2014, Dr. Harrison received two awards for his teaching at ISU, the university level Early Achievement in Teaching and the college level Shakeshaft Master Teacher awards.

As an in-demand conductor and educator, Dr. Harrison maintains a busy schedule conducting professional orchestras, all-state and honor ensembles, and offering clinics around the country. Recent engagements include leading performances with the Arizona Ballet and The Phoenix Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, All-State Orchestras in Arizona, Iowa, and North Carolina, and clinics in Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas, and Wisconsin. He is an ally of and vigorous advocate for living composers through the constant inclusion of their works in his programming along with commissioning and premiering new works for orchestra.

Dr. Harrison holds both the Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting and the Master of Music Education degree from Arizona State University. He earned the Bachelor of Music Performance degree from the University of Texas at Austin.