Monica Jakuc

Monica Jakuc (pronounced Ya kutch) is the Elsie Irwin Sweeney Professor of Music at Smith, where she has taught since 1969. Her performance of J. S. Bach's "Goldberg" Variations at Merkin Hall was hailed by New York Times music critic Tim Page as "an auspicious debut...one will observe Miss Jakuc's career with more than usual interest."

A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Jakuc opened her 1988 London debut recital with the first performance of a work written especially for her by Ronald Perera. New York audiences first heard her perform in 1980 at Alice Tully Hall in "A Program of Twentieth-Century Music for Two Pianos" with pianist Kenneth Fearn. Other concert highlights include a series of recitals in Japan, many appearances on the East and West Coasts, and a highly successful tour in Alaska.

In recent years, she has featured the music of women composers on her programs, which have included appearances at two national conferences: Feminist Theory and Music III in Riverside, California, and “Women in Music: the Last 100 Years” in Athens, Ohio. She has also been a featured artist at International Association of Women in Music concerts in London and Washington. She has given lecture-recitals on women composers at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and at colleges in the Northeast.

Inspired by Malcolm Bilson, Monica Jakuc has also performed on early pianos since 1986. As a frequently invited guest artist in a series of Historical Piano Concerts, she has played instruments from the E.M. Frederick Collection in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. She was both an organizer of, as well as a performing artist in, HaydnFest 1990, an international conference of scholars and performers held at Smith College, and co-sponsored by the Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies. She has also appeared as guest soloist with Arcadia Players, and will debut her new 6 1/2 octave McNulty fortepiano in their series this season playing Schubert’s “Winterreise” with Peter W. Shea, tenor.

With noted early music violinist Dana Maiben, she recorded Francesca LeBrun’s complete Opus 1 Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin on Dorian Discovery. She has also played fortepiano sonatas by Marianne von Martinez, Marianna von Auenbrugger, and Joseph Haydn on a Titanic Records CD. Her new recording of “Fantasies for Fortepiano” by Mozart, Haydn, C.P.E. Bach and Beethoven is now available on cdbaby.com.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Monica Jakuc received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with James Friskin and Beveridge Webster. She later worked with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory and with Russell Sherman in Boston. Konrad Wolff, renowned pianist, pedagogue and historian, was also one of her mentors.