He has been a popular musician at other major early music festivals in Europe and the United States, working with conductors such as Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen, Christopher Hogwood, Andrew Parrott and Richard Egarr. He also conducted workshops with renowned vocalists such as Emma Kirkby, Carolyn Watkinson and Anne Azéma, including on English lute song and French Air de Cour.
For many years he performed with lute and theorbo for Friends of the Song together with Johannette Zomer, with whom he made a series of CDs around 17th-century song art from Italy, France and England. He also gave concerts with Maarten Koningsberger. At the 55th anniversary of Friends of the Song, Jacobs and Zomer gave an impressive recital at De Doelen dedicated to music from London: Ayres for Court and Theatre.
Fred Jacobs had an enormous thirst for knowledge and research. This translated not only into publications and lectures on the lute and theorbo, but also into what he did musically. He was a demanding musician, but also very collegial and amiable.
Due to rheumatic diseases, he suffered a lot of pain in the last few years and unfortunately could no longer play. Fred Jacobs was 63 years old.
