Biography
Jake Darnell was appointed Principal Timpani of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2026. Prior to his appointment in Atlanta, he was the Timpani Fellow of the New World Symphony and Principal Timpani of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. Jake has additionally performed with the Houston Symphony, Utah Symphony, and Chattanooga Symphony.
Jake holds an Artist Diploma from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he was a student of Matthew Strauss; a Master of Music degree from Boston University, where he was a student of Tim Genis and Kyle Brightwell; and a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Markus Rhoten. Additional influential teachers include Tom Freer, Adrian Bending, Jeremy Epp, Leonardo Soto, and John Lawless.
In 2025, Jake was a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed the East Coast premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s work for string quartet and percussion, Pico-Bite-Beat; his performance was described by The Boston Musical Intelligencer as “spot-on, handling Ortiz’s busy, complex rhythms deftly.” There he additionally performed the slide whistle solo in Ravel’s opera L'enfant et les sortilèges, which was hailed by The Berkshire Edge as “cheeky.”
Jake is passionate about the performance of new and innovative music. He spent the summers of 2022 and 2023 performing with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra as a fellow of the Lucerne Festival Academy. He also performed in the Lucerne Festival’s 2023 Forward Festival. In 2019, Jake was a fellow of Music Academy of the West.
Jake is also an experienced orchestra librarian, having worked as an assistant and substitute librarian in the libraries of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony. He also spent four seasons as the librarian of Music Academy of the West and two as the librarian of Spoleto Festival USA.
A native of Emerson, Georgia, Jake was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. Jake proudly endorses Pearl/Adams Percussion instruments. Outside of his musical interests, Jake enjoys being active outdoors and drinking coffee.