If Paul Jacobs were an Olympic athlete, he would be akin to Michael Phelps.

If he were an adventure explorer, his standing would equal Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the duo who first reached the summit of Mount Everest. If he were a badass rock star, Mick Jagger. A track star? Usain Bolt. A daredevil? Evel Knievel.

Yet his youngish, unassuming appearance may camouflage his talents.

Jacobs is 35 years old. He plays the pipe organ — the bombastic instrument that customarily envelopes the walls of traditional churches. He chairs the organ department at The Juilliard School in New York, an appointment that makes him one of the youngest professors in the noted performing arts training institution.

The hand-and-foot keyboardist is the featured soloists for River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) Saturday evening's concert, "Musical Mélange with Organ Solo," at the Church of St. John the Divine with guest conductor Edwin Outwater, music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada.

Principal oboist and founder Alecia Lawyer's typically programs concerti and solo showpieces for musicians who regularly perform with the ensemble. It's how the audience connects with the personalities of the orchestra. Cellist Richard Belcher, also of the Enso Quartet, took on Haydn's Concerto for Cello in C Major in February, Scott McAllister's Rhapsodie for String Bass was commissioned for Sandor Ostlund in 2010 and Carter Pann's Mercury Concerto for flutist Christina Jennings in 2009.

That Lawyer opted to hire someone from outside her close circle of noisemakers for the spotlight says something about how Jacobs and Lawyer are aligned in terms of how they engage audiences while defeating the boundaries of their respective mediums. That's also the case for Outwater and composer Pierre Jalbert, whose Autumn Rhapsody is on the program.

Lawyer doesn't keep an organist on her roster; not many classical music troupes of similar size, type and budget do. Moreover, unlike violin, few music administrators feel the need to set aside time on a playbill to showcase the organ.

Because it's the organ, and the sound of the organ is associated with the veneration of whatever or whoever is on the higher spiritual plane.

An organist of a different tune

When Jacobs was an undergraduate, he decided it would be fun to tickle the ivories and pedals and execute the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach. He's done so several times, including at an 18-hour non-stop marathon in 2000 honoring the composer's 250th anniversary. As if that wasn't enough, he performed eight separate nine-hour concerts of the complete organ opera of modern French tunesmith Olivier Messiaen.

Jacobs is the first organist to win a Grammy Award, which he earned for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance for his Messiaen: Livre Du Saint-Sacrement recording on the Naxos label. His new album, American Mavericks with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, was just released in early November.

Yes, Jacobs thinks differently.

"The world's greatest organs are housed in churches, though today the organ functions equally in both secular and sacred settings," Jacobs says. "In the west, and east for that matter, it has taken on a life in concert halls in auditoriums and in many venues not associated with religious activities. That approach is found in the Guilmant concerto."

The performance of Felix-Alexandre Guilmant's Symphony No. 1 for Organ and Orchestra might as well be a Houston premiere as it's a composition seldom heard. Guilmant was first and foremost a virtuoso organist who was also skilled at the craft of compositional techniques.

"While Guilmant was not a major composer, he wrote exquisite music that deserves to be experienced," Jacobs says.

Guilmant's fin de siècle Paris comprised Debussy, Ravel and Fauré. Yet Guilmant's sonata form leans more toward virtuosic Romanticism than cottony Impressionism, although hints of the latter's treatment of sound colors and themes suffuses the second movement Pastorale, as if shepherds and nymphs are summoning one another across a musty forbidden sylvan landscape. It's that evocative.

But there's a challenge in pulling it off.

Each organ is different; the pipes produce different sounds. The effect of using varying combinations of organ stops, the mechanism that determines the direction of pressurized air to a single or group of pipes, is how the instrument can register a myriad of aural textures.

"The instrument I will be performing on is quite different than the instrument in which the piece was conceived," Jacobs explains. "A capable organist has to translate the piece to mirror an appropriate aesthetic, so you don't end up speaking French with an American accent."

Upon arriving in Houston, on Jacobs' to do list was spending time at the church surveying the organ to explore the tonal palette of the instrument. His mission? To search for the sonorities that best represent his interpretation of the piece. A large pipe organ like the one at St. John the Divine offers many, many options.

The instrument then stores his personal preferences and combinations, much like a computer, Jacobs says.

Classical music rebels

Maestro Edwin Outwater, a rebel in his own realm, joins Jacobs on stage. His previous appearance with ROCO was in 2007, when he led Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite and Alan Shulman's Theme and Variations for Viola and String Orchestra.

"I feel that ROCO and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony are kindred spirits in many ways," Outwater says. "We strive to make art more accessible, more approachable for the public. It's part of improving our customer service.

"We make it easier for people to go to concerts."

Accessible — which doesn't mean dumbing down — is an important word for Outwater. He considers that some visitors may not be familiar with classical music, whether Beethoven or Xenakis. Outwater ensures there's a mechanism that communicates what his audience needs to feel like insiders, not a foreigners, in a classical music performance.

There's a myriad of potential mistakes, he says. To under explain, over explain or choose music that isn't worthy of a smart audience.

"Less ritual, more surprise," he says in describing what a perfect program should offer.

A concert should be an adventure.

"The concertmaster comes out, bows, tunes, everyone claps . . . isn't that really strange?" he jokes. "Concerts feel like religious rituals, and people don't go to concerts for the same reasons they go to church.

"People generally attend concerts to be entertained in ways that may include profound experiences. But we have to remember the we're just like theater."

Shepherd School of Music's Pierre Jalbert agrees.

His Autumn Rhapsody was commissioned by the orchestra of his hometown, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. As the work was included in an eight-city tour, he was asked to pen a piece that could speak to everyone, the elite intelligentsia of classical music and novices alike.

"I always think from the point of view of the audience," Jalbert says. "I think that all composers do. And if they don't — they should."

Autumn Rhapsody, written for strings, begins with a slow, lyrical, atmospheric introduction that evokes the colors of autumn. As it moves to more aggressive and agitated sections, Jalbert imagined the the cold winds that usher the beginning of the winter season.

When he composed Autumn Rhapsody, he didn't have a specific place in mind. His muse as a person.

"As I was writing it, I thought about my piano teacher growing up, Arlene Cleary, who died many years ago. In fact, I dedicated the piece to her because of her tireless advocacy for the arts.

"She was the first teacher that heard my compositions, and she encouraged me to be creative and explore different aspects of music and instilled discipline and hard work."

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The River Oaks Chamber Orchestra presents "Musical Mélange with Organ Solo" on Saturday, 5 p.m. at St. John the Divine. Tickets are $25, $10 for students, and can be purchased at the door.