03/12/2026
Musician Spotlight: Meet Max Jacobs đź‘‹
Violinist Max Jacobs weaves jazz, classical music, and klezmer into his original compositions and virtuosic performances. He studied classical violin from the age of five and taught himself jazz at the jam sessions of his hometown of Baltimore City. Max has played at notable venues such as the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, the Music Center at Strathmore, Creative Alliance, and An Die Musik.
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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 the formal beauty of classical music with the expressive improvisation of jazz and klezmer.
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Jacobs is often featured in regional jazz festivals as both a bandleader and a collaborator. 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 standards by Eddie South and Stephane Grappelli.
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Max earned a Master of Music in Violin Performance in 2024 under the guidance of Professor Irina Muresanu at the University of Maryland. Jacobs has served as a Teaching Artist for the Cayman Arts Festival since 2022 and will hold an adjunct position at Goucher College this fall.
You won't want to miss his program with Kris Belgica on March 22nd at 3pm
