Jacob Schnitzer is a conduit through which the powers of music, art, media, narrative, and ritual connect with others. He is a conductor, composer, director, producer, writer, and collaborator; a seeker and teacher of truth, discovery, fear, joy, humanity, journey and wonder; a believer in the power of music to bring people together and to transform lives.

In the 2021-22 season Jacob enters his fifth year as Co-Artistic Director and Conductor of Density512, a contemporary chamber orchestra and new music collective in Austin, TX, and continues as Assistant Conductor of the UMKC Conservatory Orchestra. Jacob previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Boston University Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Artistic Advisor of the film score company Silent Films Out Loud, and Music Director of the Engineering Chamber Orchestra. He has additionally appeared with Time’s Arrow New Music Ensemble, and the MIT Symphony, Saratoga (WA), St. Edwards University, Balcones Community, and Central Texas Medical Orchestras.

Jacob has served in curatorial and advisory capacities for the Liminal Sound Series, the Boston University Messiaen Project, Ragnar Kjartanson’s S.S. Hangover at The Contemporary Austin, Stuart Hyatt’s art installation Glen Rose Formation, and Fast Forward Austin’s 2018 new music festival. He directed and edited the opera documentary film Remembrance and Ritual: Reflection on Eva and the Angel of Death for released in March 2021 on DensitySOUND, an indie new music media and record label housed by Density512. An ardent champion of new music, Jacob has conducted in world premieres of more than 35 works by living composers

Jacob remains an active composer of large ensemble, chamber, and solo works. In 2020, Jacob returned to Carnegie Hall to conduct his new work Patriots on Parade in Boston Common (wearing red socks) with students from Booker T. Washington HSPVA in Dallas, TX. Other notable performances of his works include the premiere of Firebird Cycles for chamber orchestra at the Blanton Museum of Art, Day of Sounding | יוםתרוה for solo horn and resonating surface by hornist Zach Morgan, Fanfare for the Youth at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Granada (Spain), and Fanfare for Brass at the Bay View Music Festival and Mountain Light Music Festival..

Jacob recently participated in masterclasses with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Bramwell Tovey at Domaine Forget de Charlevoix. His principal mentors include conductors Kevin Noe, Bramwell Tovey, Joshua Gersen, and Peter Bay as well as composers Zhou Long, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Richard Cornell, Dan Welcher, and Donald Grantham. He earned his Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from Boston University, Bachelor of Music from The University of Texas at Austin, and is currently pursuing Doctoral degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory. When not dreaming of ways to change the world, Jacob hikes, cooks, meditates, reads, and sings to his orange tabby cats.