Dr
Matthew
Jacobson
Academic biography
Matthew Jacobson is an Irish
drummer, composer, bandleader, educator and producer. He completed his BA in Jazz Performance at Newpark Music Centre, Dublin in 2008 and in 2010 he received an MA in Music Performance from Lucerne University, Switzerland. He completed a practice-based PhD at Ulster University in 2021, exploring improvisational approaches to motivic compositions.
As well as composing for and performing/recording with his own groups ReDiviDeR and Insufficient Funs, Matthew also co-leads Roamer, a quartet of Ireland's most internationally recognised improvisers, contemporary piano trio Origin Story, Swiss-based hyperlynx and performs regularly at home and abroad with Anna Mieke; UMBRA; Clang Sayne; Berri; Crash Ensemble; SlapBang; BigSpoon; and AERIE (DE) among others.
Matthew is a co-director of Diatribe Records, Ireland's leading independent record label for new sounds and is the Irish producer of European exchange tour and event network Match&Fuse. He is also a full-time Jazz Lecturer in DCU – specialising in drum skills, ensembles, free improvisation and music business.
He has received numerous awards from the Arts Council of Ireland including Travel and Training awards, Project awards, Bursary awards and Touring awards and has received several Culture Ireland awards to present new Irish works all around the world.
He received a Fulbright Scholar Award 2013 to spend a nine-month period in New York developing compositional and improvisational skills. He was also selected as Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown’s inaugural Musician-in-Residence from October 2015 – January 2016.
Matthew proudly uses Jesse Simpson Cymbals with thanks to the Irish Arts Council, Music Network and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
One of the most dynamic forces in Irish jazz, on and off the stage - the Irish Times
A European jazz artist of growing charisma - the Guardian
Jacobson is in typically robust form, ever-responsive, ever-probing. He may well be the most in-demand drummer in Ireland, and for good reason. - All About Jazz