Jacob Garchik, multi-instrumentalist and composer, was born in San Francisco and has lived in New York since 1994. At home in a wide variety of styles and musical roles, he is a vital part of the Downtown and Brooklyn scene, playing trombone in groups ranging from jazz to contemporary classical to Balkan brass bands. He has released 6 albums as a leader including “The Heavens: the Atheist Gospel Trombone Album”. He co-leads Brooklyn’s premiere Mexican brass band, Banda de los Muertos.

Since 2006 Jacob has contributed over 115 arrangements and transcriptions for Kronos Quartet of music from all over the world. His arrangements were featured on “Floodplain” (2009), “Rainbow” (2010), “A Thousand Thoughts” (2014), “Folk Songs” (2017), “Ladilikan” (2017), “Landfall” (2018), “Placeless” (2019) and “Long Time Passing” (2020). He composed the score for Kronos for the documentary “The Campaign” (2013).

In 2017 he composed the score for “The Green Fog” , a found-footage remake of Vertigo, directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson, which Kronos performed live at the SF Film Festival premiere. In 2019 he composed “Storyteller” using the talking, singing, playing and compositions of Pete Seeger. He has created arrangements for Anne Sofie von Otter, Angelique Kidjo, Laurie Anderson, Rhiannon Giddens, kd lang, Jolie Holland, Natalie Merchant, Tanya Tagaq, and Alim Qasimov. He teaches “Arranging Ensemble” at Mannes College in NYC.