Jennifer Frautschi — Violin

Jennifer Frautschi is a two-time Grammy Award nominee and recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, praised worldwide for her deeply expressive artistry, impeccable technique, and adventurous programming. Equally at home in both classic and contemporary repertoire, she has championed works ranging from Schumann and Lili Boulanger to Schoenberg and Barbara White, and has premiered several new compositions written for her by leading composers of today.

Critics have hailed her performances as “electrifying,” “riveting,” and “mesmerizing,” noting her “staggering energy and finesse” and “fierce expression.” Writing of her 2019 performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Canton Symphony, Cleveland Classical observed: “We witnessed the most magnificent performance by a guest soloist in recent memory … her playing a breathtaking conflation of grace and grit, and at times downright ferocious.”

As soloist, Ms. Frautschi has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä, and with the Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Rhode Island, Utah, and Florida orchestras, among many others. She has also performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples.

Her 2022–23 season included engagements with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, and Santa Rosa Symphony, as well as a residency at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Summer festival highlights included appearances at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Salt Bay Chamberfest, Sarasota Music Festival, Tippet Rise Arts Center, and the Vivace Festival.

A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Frautschi is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and has appeared at virtually all of the leading chamber music festivals and series in the United States, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philadelphia and Seattle chamber music societies, Caramoor, La Musica, Moab, Newport, Ojai, Bravo! Vail, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Spoleto Festival USA, Mainly Mozart (San Diego), Library of Congress, Phillips Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, and the 92nd Street Y. Internationally, she has performed at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Paris’s Cité de la Musique, Brussels’s Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Beijing’s Imperial Garden, among many others.

Her extensive discography includes acclaimed recordings on Naxos, Artek, Albany, and other labels. Highlights include Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with Robert Craft and the Philharmonia Orchestra; two Grammy-nominated recordings of Schoenberg with the Fred Sherry Quartet; Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony; and recent collaborations with pianist John Blacklow (Schumann: Three Sonatas for Violin and Piano and American Duos). Other notable recordings include recital discs devoted to Ravel, Stravinsky, and 20th-century solo violin works, as well as chamber collaborations with Eric Ruske, Stephen Prutsman, and Jeremy Denk.

Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi began violin studies at age three through the Suzuki Method. She trained with Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School, studied at Harvard University, the New England Conservatory, and The Juilliard School with Robert Mann, and is currently Artist-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. She performs on the 1722 “ex-Cádiz” Stradivarius, generously loaned by a private American foundation with the support of Rare Violins in Consortium.