Annie Jacobs-Perkins, Principal Cello

Annie Jacobs-Perkins, Principal Cello

Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins has been praised for “hypnotic lyricism” and performances “causing listeners to forget where they were for a moment” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker). Jacobs-Perkins was named a 2018 Outstanding Graduate of USC’s Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, where she was a Trustee Scholar and a student of Ralph Kirshbaum. She holds the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she completed her Master of Music and is pursuing a Graduate Diploma under the tutelage of Laurence Lesser. 

Jacobs-Perkins is the cellist in the Callisto Piano Trio, the youngest group ever to medal in the senior division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has performed as a chamber musician, soloist, and principal cellist in the world's leading concert halls, such as Het Concertgebouw, Jordan Hall, and Carnegie Hall. In 2019 she was the winner of the NEC Concerto Competition, resulting in a performance of Haydn's second cello concerto with the NEC Chamber Orchestra. 

She has participated in the Ravinia Steans Institute, Yellowbarn Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, and Perlman Music Program, where Jacobs-Perkins had the opportunity to collaborate and perform with such artists as Anthony Marwood, Lucy Shelton, Timo Andres, Jörg Widmann, Brett Dean, and the Mark Morris Dance Company. 

In 2015 Jacobs-Perkins won the Thornton School’s Solo Bach Competition and the Burbank Philharmonic’s Hennings-Fischer Young Artist Competition. Earlier that same year she appeared as a soloist on the NPR show “From the Top.” 

In her free time, Jacobs-Perkins spends time learning about local and sustainable food sources, reading about feminism, adoring her nephew, training for her first Muay Thai fight, and foraging in Boston's parks for indigenous edible plants.