Jakob Spahn was born in Berlin. Fascinated by a performance of “The Carnival of the Animals” at the Berlin Philharmonic, he decided to become a cellist when he was just a little boy. He studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin with Prof. David Geringas and Prof. Claudio Bohorquez, graduating with honors with a soloist diploma.
He has won numerous national and international competitions. At the 2010 ARD Competition in Munich, he was awarded the special prize of the Alice Rosner Foundation. As a scholarship holder of the German Music Competition, he was part of the national selection for the “Concerts of Young Artists.” He has been supported by the German National Academic Foundation and the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now association. Following his two-year scholarship at the Karajan Academy with the Berlin Philharmonic, he was engaged as principal cellist of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 2011.
Concert tours have taken him throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America; he has been a guest at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Usedom Music Festival, and the Zermatt Festival.
As a chamber musician, he has performed with the Scharoun Ensemble and renowned artists such as Leonidas Kavakos, Heinz Holliger, Mitsuko Uchida, and Lang Lang. As a soloist, he has performed with the Vienna Concert Verein, Sinfonia Iuventus Warsaw, the Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg, the Saxon Wind Philharmonic, the Württemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen, the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southwest German Philharmonic Konstanz, and the Bavarian State Orchestra, among others.
He also has a particular interest in contemporary music, which is reflected in his collaborations with composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Ursula Mamlok, and Krzysztof Meyer. Under Penderecki’s direction, he has recorded his first cello concerto and all his works for solo cello on CD. Hänssler Classic has released his recordings of Friedrich Gulda’s cello concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. His recording of Benjamin Britten’s solo suites was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award.
He teaches as a professor at the Nuremberg University of Music and regularly gives masterclasses at festivals such as the Academie Internationale de Nice, the Sommerliche Musikakademie Hamburg, and the Celloakademie Rutesheim.
