Jakob Spahn was born in Berlin and has been principal cellist in the Bavarian State Orchestra since 2011. He completed his studies at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin with David Geringas and Claudio Bohórquez and completed his soloist diploma with distinction. He received further artistic impulses at master classes with Frans Helmerson, Bernard Greenhouse, Steven Isserlis and Yo-Yo Ma. As a scholarship holder of the German Music Competition, he was part of the national selection for the “Concerts of Young Artists” and was supported by the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes” and the association “Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now”. He has won prizes at numerous competitions (including special prize from the Alice Rosner Foundation for his interpretation of Penderecki’s Capriccio per Sigfried Palm at the ARD Competition in Munich) and was a member of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic for two years as a scholarship holder. Concert tours have taken him through Europe, Asia and America.

He was 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 artists such as Leonidas Kavakos, Heinz Holliger, Mitsuko Uchida and Lang Lang. As a soloist, he has performed with the Vienna Concert Verein, the Sinfonia Iuventus Warsaw, the Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg, the Württemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen, the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz and the Bavarian State Orchestra. He is particularly interested 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 the complete works for solo cello. His recording of Benjamin Britten’s solo suites was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award.

Since 2020 he has been Professor of Violoncello at the Nuremberg University of Music; he also regularly gives master classes at festivals such as the Académie Internationale d’Été de Nice, the Sommerliche Musikakademie Hamburg and the Cello Academy Rutesheim.