By B. Henry Anglin
Isaiah Allen Jackson III (January, 1945 – December, 2025), was a renowned African American conductor and professor in a world where African American classical musicians faced difficulty ascending to the position of conductor or music director.
He was the great-grandson of Alan Jackson who was born in a slave cabin on the Newman Plantation at Bloomfield in Orange County, Virginia. After emancipation, Alan left the plantation, changed his name from Alan Newman to Alan Jackson, and was instrumental in establishing an African American community in Orange County called Jacksontown.
Alan Jackson and his wife, Delilah Tyree Jackson had six children. His family believed that education was the only useful response to a racist society. The three youngest children, John Butler Jackson, Mitchell Leroy Jackson, and Isaiah Allen Jackson, grew up in Jacksontown. Butler became a cabinetmaker, Mitchell was the head builder at James Madison’s Montpelier during the duPont era, and Allen, a physician who, at one time, had a practice in Orange, Virginia.
Allen later moved to Richmond, Virginia where he and fellow physicians established the Richmond Community Hospital, a hospital serving African Americans. Allen’s sons (Isaiah Allen II and Reginald) followed in their father’s footsteps, becoming physicians.
At the age of two, Isaiah Allen Jackson III suffered a severe wrist injury after falling on a milk bottle and severing his tendons. His father, an orthopedic surgeon, prescribed piano lessons. Isaiah took to his lessons with dedication and joy and music became a permanent part of his life. To make sure Isaiah received the best education, in 1959, his parents decided to send him to Putney, an integrated, progressive and academically intense private boarding school in Vermont. In the 1960s, Isaiah and his friends at Putney picketed the local Woolworth’s near Battleboro in support of the lunch counter sit-ins happening in the South.
Isaiah enrolled at Harvard University after high school. While he wanted to pursue music, his father hoped Isaiah would join the diplomatic corps after he graduated. Isaiah chose to major in Russian history and literature, which reflected the international politics of the time. Although he chose these courses, music was his primary interest.
Isaiah dabbled in conducting at Harvard. He had the opportunity to conduct the Mozart opera Cosi fan tutte. Isaiah was so taken by this experience, he decided to pursue a career in music. After graduating from Harvard cum laude, Isaiah enrolled in Stanford University receiving a M.A. in Music. Isaiah then spent a summer in France with Nadia Boulanger, a renowned French music teacher, before attending Juilliard School of Music in New York. While still a student at Juilliard, Isaiah was named Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony. He became the founder and conductor for the Juilliard String Ensemble, and was appointed assistant to conductor Leopold Stokowski with the American Symphony Orchestra. He also served as assistant conductor for the Baltimore Symphony. Isaiah received his Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) in 1973 from Juilliard.
After completing his studies, Isaiah became associate conductor for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time, he also served as guest conductor for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Queensland Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, and conducted ballet at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. He became the first Black conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1983, and the first Black conductor to lead the annual Gospel Night program.
Isaiah also performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem at the Royal Opera House in London. Following this performance, the Royal Opera House musical staff was so impressed that they invited him back as a guest conductor, and subsequently he became the first American and first African American Music Director of the Royal Ballet. The British press credited him with transforming the Royal Ballet Orchestra (once described as “sloppy”) into a “sparkling, rhythmically taut and eloquent ensemble”.
In 1987, Isaiah became the first African American conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, where he often included the works of African Americans on the program. He was also an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Dayton, where he taught Philosophy of Music.
Isaiah was awarded the prestigious Signet Society Medal of achievement in the arts from the Signet Society of Harvard University, joining past recipients such as T.S. Elliot, and Robert Frost. In 2000, he was the first African American to conduct the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
Due to a hearing loss, Isaiah retired from conducting in 2006. Isaiah was a faculty member at Berklee College of Music until 2022. He also taught at Harvard University, the Longy School of Music, Juilliard School, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and Youngstown State.
About the author: B. Henry Anglin is the great-grandson of Alan Jackson. He is a board member and Memorialization Chair of the Montpelier Descendants Committee.