Short Bio
MAXIMILIAN JACOBS is a versatile violinist who blends his diverse musical background into original compositions and improvisations. Jacobs performs swing, straight-ahead jazz, klezmer, bluegrass, and blues at venues like the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, Creative Alliance, and An Die Musik.
In 2025, Max was one of six Artists in Residence at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland, for the program's 20th year. Strathmore featured Jacobs at concerts throughout the year, including his headline month of February. Jacobs’s concert “Remembering Eddie South” paid tribute to legendary African-American jazz violinist Eddie South. He then premiered his original composition “Octet No. 1” at the Strathmore Mansion, a four-movement work that combines jazz, klezmer, and classical music.
As a bandleader, Jacobs is often featured in regional jazz festivals.
The Max Jacobs Quintet opened The 2024 Summer Gypsy Jazz Festival in Maryland, performing classic swing and Django Reinhardt standards alongside Jacobs’s originals. The Charm City Django Jazz Festival featured Jacobs in 2021 and 2023, where he performed classic standards by Eddie South and Stephane Grappelli.
Equally at home playing classical music, Jacobs holds a section violin position with the Great Falls Philharmonic in Virginia. In 2024, Max founded a monthly concert series at Black Cherry Puppet Theatre with his colleague, clarinetist Sophia Ross, as the Amanita Duo. On the third Thursday of every month, the Amanita Duo pairs classical favorites like Bach and Mozart with local artists.
Max earned a Master of Music in Violin Performance in 2024 under Professor Irina Muresanu at the University of Maryland. Jacobs has served as a Teaching Artist for the Cayman Arts Festival since 2022.
Long Bio
MAXIMILIAN JACOBS is a versatile violinist who blends his diverse musical background into original compositions and improvisations. Jacobs performs swing, straight-ahead jazz, klezmer, bluegrass, and blues at venues like the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, Creative Alliance, and An Die Musik.
In 2025, Max was one of six Artists in Residence at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland, for the program's 20th year. Strathmore featured Jacobs at concerts throughout the year, including his headline month of February. Jacobs’s concert “Remembering Eddie South” paid tribute to legendary African-American jazz violinist Eddie South by combining arrangements from his recordings with history and newspaper clippings. He then premiered his original composition “Octet No. 1” at the Strathmore Mansion, a four-movement work that combines jazz, klezmer, and classical music featuring string trio, bass, guitar, trombone, trumpet, and clarinet. The octet was enthusiastically received with a standing ovation.
As a bandleader, Jacobs is often featured in regional jazz festivals. The Max Jacobs Quintet opened The 2024 Summer Gypsy Jazz Festival in Maryland, performing classic swing and Django Reinhardt standards alongside Jacobs’s originals. The Charm City Django Jazz Festival featured Jacobs in 2021 and 2023, where he performed classic standards by Eddie South and Stephane Grappelli.
Equally at home playing classical music, Jacobs holds a section violin position with the Great Falls Philharmonic in Virginia. In 2023, Jacobs was invited to the Prague Summer Nights Festival to perform in the violin section for operas Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro in the historic Estates Theatre. He also performed with the PSN Festival Orchestra throughout the Czech Republic alongside renowned musicians like David Kim and Riccardo Morales, both of the Philadelphia Orchestra. From 2018 to 2020, Jacobs performed in a series of concerts and ballet premieres across Poland with the Sinfonietta Polonia. In 2019, he performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 as a soloist with the Vidin Sinfonietta in Vidin, Bulgaria.
In 2024, Max founded a monthly concert series at Black Cherry Puppet Theatre with his colleague, clarinetist Sophia Ross, as the Amanita Duo. On the third Thursday of every month, the Amanita Duo pairs classical favorites like Bach and Mozart with local artists. Guest performers have varied from Hindustani sitar to Hungarian folk guitar to Hindemith. Jacobs frequently arranges music for the diverse performers.
Max earned a Master of Music in Violin Performance in 2024 under Professor Irina Muresanu at the University of Maryland. In his time at Maryland, Jacobs studied classical violin performance, performing solo, in various chamber groups, with the UMD Symphony Orchestra, and for Maryland Opera Studio. Throughout his Master’s, Jacobs compiled significant research on African-American jazz violinist, Eddie South. A highlight of his tenure at Maryland was his 2022-23 appointment as the Artist in Residence at the Collington Life Plan Community. At Collington, Max performed and facilitated concerts and events for the community while building meaningful connections with the residents. Jacobs regularly performed classical music and jazz for and with the residents, taught lessons, and curated a concert series featuring guest performers and lecturers from the University of Maryland.
Jacobs has served as a Teaching Artist for the Cayman Arts Festival since 2022, teaching lessons to young Caymanian students over Zoom. In June 2024, Max had a residency with the Cayman Youth Orchestra, giving in-person lessons, masterclasses, and ensemble coachings, ultimately performing in the Cayman Youth Orchestra’s Spring Concert.
Max began studying the violin at the Peabody Preparatory at age 5 with Elizabeth Faidley and later with Louise Hildreth-Grasso. He began improvising a few years later, developing an interest in fiddle music and klezmer while playing in his synagogue band. At 13, he began studying with Cameron Raecke and played with the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra through his adolescence. In high school, Jacobs discovered the many jam sessions active throughout Baltimore, and through them, his love for jazz and bluegrass. Jacobs earned his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at Dickinson College, where he studied under violinist Blanka Bednarz.