photo: Badie Khaleghian

Jacob Tews is Assistant Professor of Strings and Orchestra at Christopher Newport University in Newport News VA. He has served previously as an educator at Wartburg College, Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, and the University of Minnesota. He earned a D.M.A. in viola performance, with a secondary emphasis in music theory, from the University of Minnesota.

As a soloist, Tews regularly performs recitals mixing standard and new repertoire. His present chamber music focus is on his contemporary music duo with violinist Erik Rohde, sonic apricity (sonicapricity.com); they regularly collaborate with living composers, work which has included a successful guest artist residency with the Alba Composition Program in Alba, Italy in 2019. Their recording of Elliott Miles McKinley’s String Quartet No. 8, written for the duo and their colleagues at Indiana State University, was released in 2019, and their debut album as a duo is slated for distribution in the winter of 2022.

As a conductor, Tews has served as Music Director of the Wartburg Community Symphony Orchestra, and as Assistant/Cover Conductor for the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony and the Southern Illinois Music Festival. As a composer, he has had his works played around the world; his major work, a double concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra, was premiered by Kiril Laskarov, Eric Lenz, and the Southern Illinois Music Festival Orchestra in 2018. Upcoming premieres include a series of overtures for the Hampton Roads Philharmonic and a solo violin sonata for Dr. Sophia Han.

When not teaching, rehearsing, performing, or composing music, Tews enjoys spending time outdoors with his family, training for and running marathons, and continuing his pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee. He lives in Hampton VA, with his wife, Leith, and their children.

Albums

Sonic Apricity

Release Date: December 9, 2022
Catalog Number: NV6485
21st Century
Chamber
Piano
Viola
Violin
What happens when you combine a love for uncovering new gems in classical music with two highly skilled performers? Violist Jacob Tews and Violinist Erik Rohde answer this very question with SONIC APRICITY: an album consisting of works they have either commissioned or championed, and the namesake of their musical coalescence. The duo presents a dynamic selection of new pieces from contemporary composers Augusta Read Thomas, Erzsébet Szőnyi, Elliott Miles McKinley, Christopher Walczak, and Michael-Thomas Foumai, an engaging program of works influenced by poetry, notable tales from pop culture, the passage of time, and more.