Janine Jansen

Janine Jansen (born January 7, 1978 in Soest in the Netherlands) is a violinist. She began to study the violin at age 6. Her father and both her brothers are also musicians. Her mother is a classical singer and is a sister of the bass Peter Kooy. Jansen studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philippe Hirschhorn, and Boris Belkin.

Biography

She appeared as soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in 2001, where she performed the Brahms Violin Concerto. She opened the BBC Proms in 2005. When performing live, she is sometimes rather adventurous with her performance, with emphasis on emotional accents more than on precision or adherence to the scores.

She has eschewed tradition by recording with only 5 solo strings rather than an orchestra, including her brother as cellist and father playing continuo. In live concerts, she has received standing ovations from enthusiastic audiences, such as in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 2006 concert in Berlin's Waldbühne Amphitheater, with a full attendance of 25,000, and in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008 to a sold out audience.

Jansen currently uses the 1727 Stradivari "Barrere" violin, on extended loan by the Stradivari Society of Chicago. She has begun her own chamber music festival in Utrecht. She has been a member of Spectrum Concerts Berlin since 1998.

She received the Dutch Music Prize in 2003, and the distinguished Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award in Britain in 2009.

Jansen was a Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2002–2004.

She and her ex-boyfriend, the violinist Julian Rachlin, have collaborated in chamber music performances.

Recordings

As of January 2006, she had recorded two mainstream CDs (one also a hybrid SACD). The first is a collection of encore pieces, conducted by Barry Wordsworth, the second a chamber ensemble rendition of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. In particular, her Vivaldi recording has seen great success in terms of download sales.

In October 2006, she released her third album. This CD features the Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos, along with the Bruch Romance for Viola, with conductor Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

In 2007 she released her fourth album, Bach: Inventions & Partita.

In 2008, she recorded a live session for the iTunes music store consisting of Bach's Trio Sonata in G Major and Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No. 6 In G Major.

In 2009 Jansen released her recording of the Beethoven and Britten Violin Concertos. The Beethoven was recorded with Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the Britten with the London Symphony Orchestra. Both orchestras were conducted by Paavo Järvi. Jansen said that recording these concertos together was a long-standing desire of hers, as she sees these two works as among the greatest concertos in the current repertoire.

In 2010, on December 29, Jansen played with Mischa Maisky and Hannes Minnaar Antonín Dvořák's Piano Trio in e minor, op.90 'Dumky' at the Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Utrecht, Vredenburg.

Janine Jansen has been a member of the chamber music series Spectrum Concerts Berlin since 1998. Various CDs with Spectrum have been released on the NAXOS label: Ernő Dohnányi - Serenade for String Trio and the Sextet (Nr. 8.557153) Robert Helps - Piano Quartet, Postlude and Nocturne (Nr. 8.559199) John Harbison - Four Songs of Solitude, Variations and Twilight Music (Nr. 8.559173)

External links

• Official website
• Janine Jansen at Allmusic
• Janine Jansen discography at Discogs
• Spectrum Concerts Berlin