Jacob Shulman

A versatile saxophonist and clarinetist drawn to modern jazz through a philosophical lens, Jacob Shulman has also cultivated deep engagements with opera and computer music. His opera Role Playing Game received its premiere in Boston during 2019, after which he relocated to New York. The debut album Connectedness appeared in 2021 on Kevin Sun’s Endectomorph imprint, followed in March 2024 by an interconnected double project issued simultaneously as the separate records High Fermament and Ferment Below.

Born in Los Angeles in 1994, Shulman attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts before moving to New Jersey and enrolling at Princeton University in 2012. While there he issued his first EP, Until Autumn (2014), continued work on an opera, and received the Isidore and Helen Sacks Memorial Prize. After completing a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in 2016, he settled in Boston to pursue a Master of Music in Music Composition at the New England Conservatory, graduating in 2018. In February 2019 he presented the 90-minute Role Playing Game at Somerville’s The Armory; the work traces a young Armenian man whose involvement with an online gaming community prompts a deeper inquiry into identity, and Shulman raised more than $5,000 through crowdfunding to support its production and recording.

After relocating to New York he taught mathematics and computer programming while maintaining his musical activities, including producing and performing on pianist Hayoung Lyou’s debut album Metamorphosis (2020). In November 2021 Shulman released Connectedness on Endectomorph, a quartet date with Lyou, bassist Simón Willson, and drummer Avery Logan. Later that year he also made available the digital collection Gesammelte Gameboy-Werke 2016-2021 (“Collected Gameboy Works 2016-2021”).

Further collaborations followed, among them appearances on the Walking Cliché Sextet’s Micro-Nap in 2022 and on Willson’s Good Company in 2023. He additionally issued the concert recording Around Town, drawn from two distinct live performances given on June 18, 2022. In March 2024 Shulman unveiled his second studio album, presented as the paired releases High Fermament and Ferment Below; both discs explore themes of choice and the rituals of performance and feature Lyou, bassist Walter Stinson, and drummer Kayvon Gordon.