Matthew Jacobson is an Irish drummer, composer, bandleader, educator and producer. He received a BA in Jazz Performance at Newpark Music Centre, Dublin in 2008, an MA in Music Performance from Lucerne University, Switzerland in 2010 and in 2021, he completed a practice based PhD at Ulster University, exploring improvisational approaches to motivic compositions.
As well as performing, composing for and recording with his own groups ReDiviDeR and Insufficient Funs, he also co-leads Roamer, a quartet of Ireland's most internationally recognised improvisers and performs regularly with Anna Mieke; UMBRA; Berri; Ensemble Ériu; SlapBang; Origin Story; BigSpoon; AERIE (DE); Fireplace Dragon (US) and Ms Mercy (UK) among others.
Matthew is 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 Dublin City University – specialising in drum skills, ensembles, free improvisation and music business.
He has received numerous grants from the Arts Council of Ireland including Travel and Training awards, Project awards, Bursary awards, Recording awards and Touring awards has has received several Culture Ireland awards to present new Irish works all around the world.
He received a Fulbright Scholar Award in 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.
The Irish Times“One of the most dynamic forces in Irish jazz, on and off the stage. ”