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Born on the 11th August 1986 in Ireland, Matthew Jacobson is a drummer, composer, bandleader, educator and producer currently based Dublin. He completed his BA in Jazz Performance at Newpark Music Centre, Dublin in 2008 and in 2010 he received a Masters Degree in Music Performance from Lucerne University, Switzerland.

He has represented his country, touring with the European Jazz Orchestra in 2008 and performs regularly in Ireland and abroad. He is also a co-director of Diatribe Records, Ireland's leading record label for new sounds and the Irish co-producer of European exchange tour network and annual festival Match&Fuse. Since 2010, Matthew has been a member of faculty on Newpark Music Centre’s BA in Jazz Performance program, as both a drum tutor and ensemble leader.

As well as performing, composing for and recording with his own quartet ReDiviDeR - winners of the Cork Jazz Festival 2011 ‘Best Young Artist Award’ - Matthew also co-leads German-based guitar trio Blowout Fracture, Swiss-based quintet A E R I E, New York-based trio FarJam and France-based Foluain Trio. Matthew has also worked with several leading European and American creative music specialists including Evan Parker and Kit Downes (UK), Ralph Alessi, Peter Evans and Mark Feldman (US), Niels Klein and Nils Wogram (DE), Savina Yannatou (GR) and at home in Ireland with Michael Buckley and Ronan Guilfoyle.

As well as receiving scholarships to spend time studying at both the School for Improvisational Music in New York and Berklee College of Music in Boston, he also received a bursary from the Irish Arts Council to spend six weeks in Chennai, South Indian studying the region's traditional Carnatic music.

He received a Fulbright Scholar Award in Performing Arts to spend a nine-month period – 2013/14 – in New York developing compositional and improvisational skills and is currently the inaugural Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Musician in Residence.

More About this Artist

A European jazz artist of growing charisma
John Fordham, the Guardian
One of Ireland's most exciting new talents
the Irish Times

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