Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins wants to do more than make art; she wants to turn her life into a piece of art. Annie's love of interdisciplinary work has led her to collaborate with painters, dancers, potters, cheesemongers, fashion designers, boxers, composers, poets, woodworkers, essayists, knitters, and farmers. She believes that it is the duty of an artist to protect beauty that already exists in the world, and as such, is a passionate participant in local, sustainable agriculture and a boycotter of fast fashion. Music is one of the ways she digs her toes into the earth around her.
Praised for anything from "hypnotic lyricism, causing listeners to forget where they were for a moment" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) to "delightfully pluck[ing] and slapp[ing] her cello like a rockabilly upright bassist" (The Democrat and Chronicle), Annie is known for "eras[ing] all kinds of boundaries" (USC Thornton School of Music) with her music. She is 1st prize winner of the 2023 Pierre Fournier Award and 2024 Buchet International Cello Competition ("Prix Buchet"). Highlights of her 2025-26 season include a recital debut at the Sydney Opera House, the release of her solo album on the Champs Hill label, the release of a piano trio album with Trio Bronte on the Solo Musica label, and her first season as a member of Ensemble Modern. Recent and upcoming concerto engagements include those with the London Philharmonia, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Binghamton Philharmonic, Jyvaskyla Sinfonia (Finland), and Post-Classical Ensemble.
After winning the 2022 Father Merlet Award from the Pro Musicis Foundation, Annie commissioned composers Stratis Minakakis and Daniel Temkin to write two works for cello and piano responding to the climate crisis. Working with living composers such as Timo Andres, Brett Dean, Konstantia Gourzi, Jessie Montgomery, Jeffrey Mumford, Paul Wiancko, Octavio Vazquez, and Jorg Widmann has been some of the most rewarding work of her career. In the 2023-24 season, Annie was Artist-in-Residence at the EstOvest Festival Contemporary Cello Week in Turin, Italy and gave the Washington DC premiere of Jeffrey Mumford's concerto of radiances blossoming in expanding air with the Post-Classical Ensemble at the Kennedy Center.
With a deep commitment to chamber music, Annie is the cellist of the Berlin-based piano trio, Trio Bronte. Trio Bronte is the 1st prize winner and winner of the special CD-production prize at the 2025 Franz Schubert und die Musik der Moderne Competition, as well as 1st prize winner of the 2023 Ilmari Hannikainen International Piano Chamber Music Competition and 2nd prize winner of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition. From 2023-25, Annie was the Artist-in-Residence of the Austin Chamber Music Center. She regularly participates in festivals such as Krzyzowa Music, Marlboro Music, the Perlman Music Program, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and Yellow Barn, where she has collaborated with artists such as Jonathan Biss, Miriam Fried, Viviane Hagner, Nobuko Imai, Anthony Marwood, Donald Weilerstein, and members of the Brentano, Doric, Juilliard, Kuss, and Verona Quartets. Her performances have brought her to venues such as Carnegie Hall, Flagey Studios, the Kennedy Center, het Konzertgebouw, and Wigmore Hall.
Annie holds an Artist Diploma from the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin and masters degrees from the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler and New England Conservatory, where she was the recipient of the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship. In addition to a bachelor of music, Annie holds minors in English and German Studies from the University of Southern California, where she was a Trustee Scholar and a recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Graduate Award. Her primary teachers are Frans Helmerson, Troels Svane, Laurence Lesser, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Kathleen Murphy Kemp. Other important influences include Guy Fishman, David Geringas, Geoff Dyer, and Thomas Gustafson.
