Silk Road Artists

Eric Jacobsen
cello (United States)

Mr. Jacobsen is a regular presenter and performer at Bargemusic, often working with Mark Peskanov and Steven Beck. He has appeared as soloist with the Chamber Soloists of Austin in Texas, the Riverside Orchestra, the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, the Greenwich Village Orchestra and the Lake George Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Jacobsen was heard on "Sound Check", a NPR program in preparation for a concert at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. Before his graduation, Mr. Jacobsen performed a tour of the northeast with Dutch violinist Vera Beths.

In a wonderful collision of cultures, Mr. Jacobsen was the cellist in residence with The Silk Road Project in Virginia , where he premiered a piece by a Vietnamese composer incorporating instruments from Vietnam, Korea, Morocco and Italy. In coordination with the same project, Mr. Jacobsen performed with Yo-Yo Ma in a concert involving Music of the Roma (Gypsy music). Mr. Jacobsen has also collaborated at The Tenri Cultural Institute and The Angel Orensanz Foundation in performances with musicians from Armenia and Iran; Gevorg Dabaghyan on the duduk, and kamancheh player, Kayhan Kalhor.

Mr. Jacobsen organizes the chamber ensemble, The Knights, which performs as a chamber orchestra and smaller ensembles. He conducted his first concert last spring, which included Debussy's Two Dances for Harp and String Orchestra. The Knights recently presented a series of concerts at New York's Bargemusic, in collaboration with flutist Paula Robison

Mr. Jacobsen has studied at The School for Strings, and The Juilliard School, where he received his Bachelor of Music, under the guidance of David Soyer, and Harvey Shapiro.

He has spent summers, in Salzburg, Austria with Julius Berger, Villars, Switzerland with Ardyth Alton and with Harvey Shapiro in Engelberg, Switzerland and Florence, Italy.

Mr. Jacobsen plays a Bernardus Calcanius cello crafted in 1744. He appears on the Silk Road Ensemble’s latest release from Sony Classical, New Impossibilities.

Learn more about Eric Jacobsen at his homepage: www.jacobseneric.com.