Jakob Hultberg, born 1978 in Sweden finished his conducting studies in May 2010 with a diploma in orchestral conducting from The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He has since worked as conductor in Sweden and Denmark.

Originally trained as a percussionist, Jakob has studied choral and orchestral conducting, music theory and composition at the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama. At the academy he worked closely together with the new music department leading to numerous premieres of both orchestra and chamber pieces. His collaboration with the opera academy gave him the possibility to work intimately with the opera students and conducting several interesting productions with singers and orchestra, as well as premiering several operas.

His diploma studies in Copenhagen commencing in 2006 with professor Giancarlo Andretta, gave Jakob rich possibilities to develop both as orchestral and opera conductor. Already during his studies he was recurrently engaged by the Royal Opera in Copenhagen as assistant conductor on their productions of Wagner's Tannhäuser and Lohengrin as well as Britten's Rape of Lucretia. This is a collaboration that has continued and developed and which has given him the possibility to work with some of the world's leading singers and stage directors. In 2011 and 2012 he was invited to conduct two family productions and one opera gala concert at the Gothenburg Opera.

Parallel to opera conducting Jakob regularly conducts symphonic music and ensembles of contemporary music. In 2012 Jakob was one of the finalists, and eventually awarded shared second prize in the Swedish conducting competition 'Svenska Dirigentpriset'

Jakob has been awarded numerous scholarships, notably among them, he has for several successive years won the audition for the Conductor scholarship from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

From 2014 to 2018, Jakob held the position  as Artistic Director and Chief conductor of the Chamber Choir Camerata, Copenhagen with which he  conducted Bach Matthew Passion, Mozart Requiem twice, Tavener Requiem Fragments, a very much acclaimed yearly Handel Messiah, as well as numerous acappella-concerts. 2015 included his debut at the Royal Opera Copenhagen with the world premiere of Pelle Gudmundsen Holmgreen's 'Sol går op, sol går ned', as well as work as assistant conductor at La Monnaie in Brussels on their production of Verdi's Un Ballo in maschera. In October 2015 Jakob made his debut at The Royal Ballet in Copenhagen and was reinvited to conduct Tchaikovsky Swan Lake in 16/17. The successful cooperation with the Royal Ballet has continued and in 17/18 Jakob was responsible for their repremieres of both Nutcracker and Swanlake, much appreciated by critics and audiences alike. In June 2016 he conducted a much appreciated Carmina Burana with Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and later these summer he premiered a well received new Hamlet opera with Nordic Opera/Athelas Sinfonietta at the Shakespeare festival in Helsinore, a production that also played on tour in Denmark. 

2016-2018 included concert productions with Royal Philharmonic Stockholm, Norrköping SO, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Danish Radio SO,  and South Denmark Philharmonic.

In 17/18 Jakob was in charge of two major ballet productions at The Royal Ballet Copenhagen, Nutcracker and Swan Lake. He also worked with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm, Norrköping SO and Aarhus SO, and made his debut at Folkoperan, Stockholm.

In the autumn of 2018 he conducted two productions at Malmö Opera, West Side Story and La Traviata, and was also invited to serve as House Conductor at the same theatre for the 19/20 season.

Other highlights from the 18/19 season includes Jakob’s debut at the Stockholm Royal Opera, consisting of 20 performances of Nutcracker around Christmas 2018, Opera gala concerts at Malmö Opera, orchestral productions with Norrköping SO and Gävle SO and recording sessions with the Danish Radio SO.