A 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, violinist Colin Jacobsen first played to critical acclaim at the age of 14, collaborating with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic in a performance that was hailed by The New York Times: “Jacobsen was the impressively accomplished soloist in Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, sounding as if he were born to the instrument and its sweet, lyrical possibilities.” He recently returned to the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Brahms’ Double Concerto with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and David Zinman conducting. Mr. Jacobsen’s wide-ranging musical activities are part of a generational wave that is taking classical music into a much broader context. As a soloist, he continues to play with orchestras worldwide, including the YouTube Symphony and those of Albany, Charleston, Chicago, San Francisco, Nashville, and Philharmonia Baroque. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as a member of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, and has collaborated with musicians such as Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Kim Kashkashian, Mark O’Connor, Phillip Glass, Steven Isserlis, Christian Tetzlaff, Mitsuko Uchida, and Jan Vogler. Mr. Jacobsen’s summer festival appearances have included Banff, Caramoor, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Salzburg, and Tanglewood.

As a touring member of the Silk Road Ensemble since its conception by Yo-Yo Ma, Mr. Jacobsen has been part of a creative cauldron that has continually pushed him to expand his boundaries. Through exposure to musicians like the Persian kemanche virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, vocalist Alim Qasimov, and pipa player Wu Man, he has been inspired to compose and arrange pieces both for the Ensemble and for other groups. Mr. Jacobsen is a co-founder along with his brother, the cellist and conductor Eric Jacobsen, of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider and the chamber orchestra The Knights. Both ensembles tour worldwide and have issued acclaimed albums featured by NPR as top classical picks for 2008 and 2012, respectively. In December 2012, Colin Jacobsen was selected, with his brother Eric, from among the nation’s top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship, which carries an unrestricted grant of $50,000.