Dr. Jakob Hofer

Jakob Hofer is a violin instructor and performer based in Lexington, Virginia. Recently appointed to the faculty at Southern Virginia University, Dr. Hofer directs the SVU orchestra and teaches violin and other music courses at the university. As a founding member of the Rosco String Quartet in Salt Lake City, he has won several competitions including First Place in MTNA’s National Chamber Music Competition and Finalist in the American Prize Competition. He has received instruction from the world’s most renowned chamber musicians including members of the Takacs, Juilliard, Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir String Quartets, and studied many years with the acclaimed chamber musician Violaine Melançon.

Jakob Hofer has been concertmaster of the Loudoun Symphony in Virginia, the Utah Philharmonia, and the Peabody Concert Orchestra in Baltimore. He has performed with the York Symphony in
Pennsylvania, Sinfonia Salt Lake and the Ballet West Orchestra in Salt Lake City, and the Utah
Symphony. He has performed in venues ranging from Lincoln Center in New York to the Mendelssohn Haus in Leipzig, Germany. He often performs new compositions, and has specialized training in Baroque performance practice and orchestral conducting.

Dr. Hofer holds performance degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Utah. He has attended and performed in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Robert Mann Quartet Institute, the Round Top Music Festival, the Garth Newel Music Festival, and the Juilliard Summer Music Academy.

Dr. Hofer was previously on faculty at Utah Valley University and the Gifted Music School in Salt Lake City. He has also taught at Westminster College’s Summer Strings Camp and at the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute. Several of his students have won competitions and have been accepted as performance majors in prestigious university music programs around the country. Originally from San Diego, Jakob began his music studies at age five in the Suzuki method. He currently resides in Lexington, Virginia with his wife Laurel Elizabeth Hofer, who is an accomplished vocalist and teacher, and their 2-year-old daughter.