BIO

Jake Klinkenborg began his cello career at age 6 in Lander, Wyoming. An interest in music and environmental degradation led him to Oberlin College, where he received degrees in Cello Performance and Environmental Studies. In 2015 he moved to Montréal, where he completed his graduate studies at McGill University.

Klinkenborg’s teachers include Thomas Heinrich, Rebecca Murdock, Brian Manker, and Darrett Adkins. He has performed at festivals such as Ilesoniq, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Orford, Music Masters Course Japan, and Kneisel Hall. In 2016 Klinkenborg became a fellow of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas Global Leaders Program, which resulted in performances and teaching residencies at several Chilean and Paraguayan music institutions. Klinkenborg’s clarinet trio, Tetrakis, won the McGill Chamber Music Competition in 2017, resulting in a brief exchange at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.  

Klinkenborg loves performing works by living composers. Recent performances include Sean Ferguson’s Projet Miroirs for cello and electronics in venues in Montréal and Toronto, and a chamber recital of music related to climate change at the SKOL Arts Center in Montréal. Klinkenborg’s solo projects include a series of recitals involving glowing body paint and black lights. In 2018 Klinkenborg premiered Simple Geometries-- a piece by Canadian composer Jason Noble featuring solo cello and an audio-reactive glowing LED glass harp.

Outside the practice room Klinkenborg has taken care of his family's goats, worked as a model for figure drawing classes, and hitchhiked through Chilean Patagonia to assist a friend in a scientific survey of South American bees. He has written for Cracked.com, and he contributed writing for The De-Textbook, published by Penguin Books in 2013.