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HIGHLIGHTS

Artistic Director, Density512, Austin, Texas
Associate Conductor, The Missouri Symphony
Instructor of Orchestral Activites, Austin Peay State University
The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award
Bayreuth Festival, Masterclass Conducting 2024

NEWS

March 2025 | KMFA Classical 89.5 and Density512 present Power Up: The Art of Video Game Music. In conjunction with the SXSW Festival, this event combines performances, panel discussions, and hands-on gaming showcases featuring renowned composers and game developers.

March 2025 | Density512 releases the new album Arnold Rosner: Music for Symphonic Wind Band on London record label Toccata Classics, joining the London Philharmonic, Boston Modern Orchestra, and Odyssey Opera to record the composer’s complete ouvre.

August 2024 | Jacob is promoted to Associate Conductor of The Missouri Symphony and appointed to the conducting faculty of Austin Peay State University.

July 2024 | Jacob is selected by the Richard Wagner Bayreuth Festival to be in residence for as one of four international participants in its conducting masterclass.


American conductor Jacob Aaron Schnitzer harnesses the powers of music and storytelling to connect with others. His work as a conductor spans symphonic, opera, and contemporary repertoire; his work in immersive concert design offers audiences unforgettable multisensory experiences.

Recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Jacob was recently promoted to Associate Conductor of The Missouri Symphony. He is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Density512, a chamber orchestra hailed as “a crack new-music ensemble” (Gramophone) that specializes in interdisciplinary storytelling, innovative concert design, and contemporary music. For his work at the intersection of music and story, he was selected to be in residence at the Richard Wagner Bayreuth Festival Masterclass Conducting.

Jacob’s commitment to collaborating with living composers has led to the development of new works in opera, ballet, video game music, and multimedia.  He has led on performances at the SXSW Music Festival, Firefly Music Festival,  Blanton Museum of Art, Fast Forward Austin, Here Be Monsters, The Contemporary Austin, Fusebox Festival, and with National Geographic Explorer Stuart Hyatt at the Cave Without a Name. A champion of new music, Jacob has led world premieres of 70 works. Jacob’s recordings of contemporary music can be heard on Density512’s in-house label DensitySOUND and Toccata Classics.

In his work as a creative director, Jacob integrates theater and multimedia elements into immersive musical experiences. In recent projects, Jacob has served as a stage director, filmmaker, lighting designer, dramaturg, poet, mixing engineer, and clown. A passionate educator, he currently serves as Instructor of Orchestral Activities at Austin Peay State University and previously served as Interim Director of Orchestra at Kent State University, Teaching Artist at The Missouri Symphony Conservatory, and joined Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts as a visiting conductor and composer on two tours to Carnegie Hall. 

Jacob participated in masterclasses with Yannick Nézet-Séguin 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, and Donald Grantham. He holds degrees from the UMKC Conservatory, Boston University, and The University of Texas at Austin.

When not dreaming of ways to change the world, Jacob hikes, cooks, meditates, reads, and sings to his orange tabby cats.       

For Schnitzer, conducting... is akin to directing a theatrical performance.
— Sightlines Magazine
Schnitzer is animated and athletic and gets a lot out of his musicians. Their performance of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony brought a standing ovation.
— Kent Ravenna Record-Courier
...a groundbreaking collaboration... masterfully performed by Density512’s chamber orchestra under the baton of Jacob Schnitzer.
— KMFA Classical 89.5, Top Twelve Classical Highlights of 2024
 

Photos by Jack Kloecker

 

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