Dr. Jake Hertzog is a critically acclaimed guitarist, composer and educator whose career to-date has spanned eleven albums as bandleader across jazz, rock and classical new music styles. He has toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and India and performed and recorded with a diverse cadre of artists including Randy Brecker, Ivan Neville, Mike Clarke, Blondie Chaplin, Anton Fig, Corey Glover, Barry Altschul, Dave Leibman, Ingrid Jensen and many others.

 Most recently, Jake Hertzog is pushing the boundaries of improvisation, guitar, and technology with his newest release a turn of events, with media artist Adam Hogan. The pair blend free jazz, and ambisonic technology on a completely innovative new album released in 2023. Hertzog's many active projects have included the Jake Hertzog Trio with Harvie S and Victor Jones — a jazz/rock group that has released five albums to wide acclaim and radio success and headlined venues such as The Blue Note in New York and Salo Jazz Festival in Finland. In 2023, Jake was honored with a Jazz Road Creative Residency Grant from the South Arts Organization, funded by the Doris Duke foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for a large-scale work for jazz orchestra, guitar, and strings to be recorded, released and debuted in 2024. Jake also received a 2023 Artist 360 Grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance for an upcoming jazz/folk project.

A true sonic explorer, Hertzog’s music has also included fusions with the classical world. In 2018 he released “Stringscapes: A Portrait of the World in Nylon and Steel” (2018) on Fretmonkey Records. This 12 movement through-composed work for two guitars co-features classical guitarist Yishai Fisher and is a unique blend of classical and jazz. He was awarded a fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council in 2018 for music composition for this project. Hertzog’s classical work also includes a solo guitar album, "Well Lit Shadow" (2016), a classical suite for solo electric guitar celebrating themes and images in particle physics.

As musical director for pop stars he has performed on national television shows including Good Morning America, The View, and The Today Show. Hertzog's former rock group "The Young Presidents" (2009-2016) has been featured on Vh1 and MTV as well as radio stations around the world. He also produced a documentary film about the making of their album "Coalition," in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Rob Fraboni (Rolling Stones, The Band).

As an educator, Hertzog has been an artist-in-residence and guest clinician in colleges and conservatories in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and India. He created the instructional series "Hey Jazz Guy" for Guitar Player magazine and contributed over 30 articles to the publication. He currently serves as Jazz Area Coordinator as Assistant Professor of Guitar at the University of Arkansas. Jake is the author of two guitar instructional books, Guitar SFX (Hal Leonard), and Guitar University (Royal Press).

Hertzog is a grand prize winner of the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, holds a performance degree from Berklee College of Music and a master's degree from The Manhattan School of Music in New York. In additional to his musical work, Hertzog also holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Arkansas. His research focuses on how higher music education is adapting to the digital music industry. Other research includes data use in the music industry, music ecosystems, ambisonic improvisation, and entrepreneurial pedagogy. Hertzog’ research has appeared at numerous international conferences and in journals such as Artivate, and Jazz Education in Research and Practice, and Journal of Popular Music Education. Most recently, Hertzog’s innovative music ecosystem research is being supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with results of multiple studies anticipated in 2025. www.jakehertzog.com