Maynard Holbrook hadn’t expected to perform Saturday night with the Kruger Brothers at the Maine Center for the Arts.

Although he has sung with them on several albums and appeared at the group’s annual October festival in his native North Carolina, he came to Maine simply to listen to his friends perform with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.

But when Uwe Kruger called his old friend to the stage to honor longtime symphony member Richard Jacobs with a chorus of “Amazing Grace,” Holbrook could not say no. The singer’s sweet rendition of the hymn was a fitting tribute to a man who devoted his life to music.

Jacobs, who played clarinet with the BSO for 39 years, died Thursday in Bangor at the age of 72. He retired from the University of Maine in 1997 after 34 years as a music professor in the School of the Performing Arts.

He also served on the BSO board and conductor search committees and, along with his wife, Sally Jacobs, spearheaded the creation of the annual Maine High School Concerto Competition, sponsored by the symphony.

Jacobs, however, may be best remembered as a dedicated, enthusiastic and caring teacher. He and his friend Bob Modr co-founded in 1975 the Maine District Music Educators Solo Ensemble Festival and the following year organized the first Maine State Solo and Ensemble Festival. Because of his dedication to music education, Jacobs was inducted last month into the National Music Educator’s Hall of Fame.

After Holbrook finished the first verse of “Amazing Grace,” the hundreds of people who attended the Kruger Brothers concert, many of whom probably had never heard of Jacobs, joined the bluegrass band in singing it again. Music, after all, seemed the best way to honor a man who devoted his life to sharing it with others.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bangor. Calling hours will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Brookings-Smith LaBeau Chapel in Orono, the town Jacobs called home for more than three decades.