Aaron Jacobs, Assistant Professor of String Pedagogy and Director of the UNM Music Prep School and String Pedagogy Lab School, is an accomplished string player and passionate educator who has channeled his energy into inspiring musicians at every level—from preschool-age beginners to graduate students and beyond. 

 

For more than 20 years, Aaron taught at universities, academies, music schools, and summer institutes in the midwestern United States. He has served as a violin professor on the faculties of Millikin University and Illinois State University and is a licensed music educator with public school teaching experience at both the primary and secondary levels. While at the University of Illinois, he founded the Illinois String Academy, a dynamic program that offered private and group instruction on the violin, viola, cello, and double bass, as well as chamber music and instruction in music theory and composition. He also created a violin program for the Danville, Illinois public school district that served nearly 200 first- and second-grade students.

 

An innovative and engaging clinician, Aaron has served frequently as a resource to string teachers throughout the United States and on six continents. Since 2017, he has worked with hundreds of professional educators, performers, and students as a faculty member of the Paul Rolland String Pedagogy Workshop, including four years as co-director. In addition, Aaron has presented research and clinical sessions at numerous venues—such as the national conference of the American String Teachers Association and the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic—and is regularly invited to lead master classes and clinics for teachers and students of all ages.

 

Aaron remains active as a performer as well. Since 2005, he and his wife, pianist Tatiana Shustova, have performed frequently in Europe and across the United States, earning awards at two international competitions. He was a featured soloist with several orchestras in Illinois and Ohio and has served multiple appointments as concertmaster, principal second violin, or principal viola in professional orchestras. Notable chamber music collaborations have included the Sariana Trio, Chambana Trio, Illinois Arts Trio, and close work with composers Stacy Garrop, Missy Mazzoli, and Bright Sheng in the performance of their works.

 

Aaron is very grateful to his many teachers and mentors over the years. His primary violin instructors and professors include (in chronological order) Kay Harbaugh, Anna Bittar Weller, William Terwilliger, Movses Pogossian, Penny Thompson Kruse, Vasile Beluska, Bernard Zinck, Gerardo Ribeiro, Sherban Lupu, Sibbi Bernhardsson, and Megan Freivogel. Viola instruction with Csaba Erdélyi and Charlie Pickler. String education and pedagogy mentors include Elaine Colprit, Darcy Drexler, Stacia Spencer, James Kjelland, Mimi Zweig, Sherry Sinift, Gerald Fischbach, and Joanne May. Orchestral studies with Blair Milton and Charlie Pickler; additional violin performance studies with Marjorie Bagley, Yehonatan Berick, Jacques Israelievitch, Ilya Kaler, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Almita Vamos, and Roland Vamos; master class performances for Alla Aranovskaya, Dmitri Berlinsky, Lawrence Dutton, Ralph Evans, Jacques Israelievitch, Sherri Kloss, Annette Barbara Vogel, Jasper Wood, the Jupiter Quartet, Parker Quartet, Won-Bin Yim, and Mimi Zweig; and chamber music studies with the Audubon Quartet, Alan Bodman, Alan Chan, Lawrence Dutton, Csaba Erdélyi, the Fine Arts Quartet, James Giles, Ian Hobson, the Jupiter Quartet, Stefan Kartman, Kevin Lawrence, Stefan Milenkovich, the Pacifica Quartet, Max Raimie, Debra Richtmeyer, Alan Smith, and Almita Vamos.

 

Aaron strives each day to live out his mission of genuinely caring about people and enhancing their lives through music. If you would like to get in contact with Aaron, please use the contact form HERE.