biography

Spanish-Danish violinist, Jacobo Christensen was born in Valencia, Spain, on August 25, 1999. His mother, soprano Gloria Fabuel, introduced him to the world of music, and he held his first violin before the age of three. He began lessons with Suzuki-method instructor Joan Vicent Sanchís.

His first teachers were violinists Catalina Roig, Vicente Balaguer and Mikhail Spivak. Since 2018 he studies at the Reina Sofía Higher School of Music in Madrid with professor Zakhar Bron and his assistant, Yuri Volguin, where he has finished Higher Studies and a Master’s Degree in Interpretation with the highest grades. In Cremona, he is a student of Salvatore Accardo thanks to the sponsorship of the Stauffer Foundation. He has also taken classes from Gil Shaham, Viktoria Mullova, Mihaela Martin, Sergey Ostrovsky, Boris Belkin, Ingolf Turman, Miriam Fried, Giovanni Guzzo, Silvia Marcovici, Christoph Poppen, Ivry Gitlis, Agustín León Ara, Vasko Vassilev, Heime Müller and Marta Gulyas. His first instructor in music theory was composer Jesús Debón and he studied stage arts with Alejandro Carvallo. His conducting instructor is Maestro Cristóbal Soler.

Jacobo Christensen first appeared on stage at the age of five and made his soloist debut in 2013 with Tartini’s Violin Concerto in D minor under the baton of Salvador Sebastià. He reprised this program in Geneva and Solsona with Maestro Sergei Ostrovski, after receiving First Prize at the Geneva International Music Competition Crescendo for young musicians. A few months later, he played first violin in Bach’s Concerto for two violins in D minor and repeated Tartini’s Concerto in D minor with the Master Chamber Players, under conductor Ricardo Casero. The same year, Christensen took First Prize in the Spanish competitions Concurso Internacional de Violín Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), Festival AIMS in Solsona (Lleida) and III Concuso para Jóvenes Intérpretes in Canet (Valencia). 

At age 14 he debuted Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pablo Rus, on the Iturbi stage of the Valencia Symphony Hall. Since then he has played in the USA, China, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal, etc. piano recitals and some of the most important violin concertos: Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Sibelius… under the batons of Maestros Cristóbal Soler, John Carewe, Ivan Monighetti, Zubin Mehta, Plácido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel, Pablo Heras Casado, Andrés Salado, Péter Eötvös, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Ignazio Terrasi, Oliver Díaz, Juanjo Mena, Zakhar Bron and András Schiff, among others.

In March 2019 Christensen was laureate in the city of Alicante’s competition Premio de Interpretación Sociedad de Conciertos. A month later he took First Place in the competition for young musicians II Certamen de Joves Solistes organised by the Region of Valencia’s Youth Orchestra, garnering a concert tour with the Orchestra with J. Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor under the direction of Pablo Rus. In February 2023 he has been awarded Prix du Cap Ferret Music Open (France).

In 2021 he founded his own orchestra, Nostrum Mare Camerata, of which he is director and solo violin and debuted in July 2021 at the Olympia Theater in Valencia. His programs Alma Mater, Entre el tango y la habanera and Agitato have been performed at festivals such as the Torrevieja International Habaneras and Polyphony Contest, the ORFIM International Music Festival in Oropesa del Mar, the International Festival of Ancient and Baroque Music in Peñíscola, among other places, with successful performances in which they have conveyed their freshness and enthusiasm to the public.

As a member of the Albéniz Quartet, he received in June 2021 from Her Majesty Queen Sofía the mention of the most outstanding string quartet in the ESMRS.

Together with the pianist Carlos Apellániz he recorded the Cd entitled Violín. Jacobo Christensen and the Ep De glade 20’ere.