about
Jacob Kingsbury Downs is a doctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield, where his research explores how technologies mediate listeners' experiences of sound.
He has also tutored and supervised students at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Sheffield, as well as the Purcell School.
As well as academic pursuits, Jacob is an accomplished musician, regularly touring as a singer, pianist, viola player, and harpist.
He is also an experienced composer, arranger, engraver, and score consultant.
BIOGRAPHY
Jacob was born in December 1993 near to the Devon coastline in south-west England. He began formal musical training at the age of ten, though the thrill of scales and technical exercises never quite outweighed that of writing new music for the army of instruments he collected over his teenage years.
At the age of eighteen, Jacob signed his first record deal with Vox Humana Records, releasing two singles and an EP with them over a five-year period, all of which he wrote, arranged, and produced. He has also toured nationally as a session musician.
After stints in Oxford, Cambridge, and London, he now lives in Brussels, Belgium.
education
ph.d. MUsic
university of sheffield
m.st. MUsic (musicology)
St john's college,
university of oxford
B.A. MUsic
christ church,
university of oxford
2012–2015
First
Recipient of Clifford Smith Prize