Janine Jansen Performs Five Concerts As Part Of Perspectives Series At Carnegie Hall

Celebrated Dutch violinist Janine Jansen kicks off her five-concert Perspectives series this season at Carnegie Hall with two exciting chamber concerts in December.

Since her earliest days as a young musician and later, as founder and curator of the annual International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht for 13 seasons (2003-2016), chamber music has played an important role in Ms. Jansen's development as an artist. The first two performances of her Perspectives series celebrate the musical friendships she has nurtured through chamber music by bringing some of Ms. Jansen's favorite works and musicians from the Utrecht festival to Carnegie Hall. On Thursday, December 7 at 7:30 p.m., Ms. Jansen will be joined on stage in Zankel Hall by pianist Lucas Debargue, clarinetist Martin Fröst, and Swedish cellist Torleif Thedéen for chamber works by Bartók and Szymanowski together with Messiaen's haunting Quartet for the End of Time. Two evenings later on Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m. Ms. Jansen returns to Zankel Hall with Mr. Thedéen along with pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk for an all-Russian program featuring chamber works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff.

Ms. Jansen resumes her Perspectives series in the new year with three exciting programs in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Giving a performance of the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 on Thursday, January 18 at 8:00 p.m., Ms. Jansen reunites with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with whom she made her Carnegie Hall concerto debut in 2010, led by its new Chief Conductor, Daniele Gatti, for a program that also includes Mahler's Symphony No. 1. On Sunday, January 21 at 2:00 p.m., Ms. Jansen makes her Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage recital debut, partnered with acclaimed pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, to perform violin sonatas by Debussy and Grieg, and is joined by the Dover Quartet for Chausson's rarely-heard Concert for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet.

Ms. Jansen concludes her Perspectives series with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra on Tuesday, March 13 at 8:00 p.m. giving the New York premiere of Dutch composer Michel Van der Aa's Violin Concerto, a piece written especially for her that Ms. Jansen describes as "full of energy and lyricism," and which reflects Ms. Jansen's long-time artistic partnership with the composer. The program also includes Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2. During her visit in March, Ms. Jansen also leads a chamber music master class for an invited group of students presented by the Weill Music Institute.

"For me, Carnegie Hall is such a legendary place, and this is the ultimate dream," Ms. Jansen said. "It's so nice to have this wonderful residency, where one plays solo with an orchestra, but also has three chamber concerts alongside wonderful friends. What is important to me as a musician, is being a musician-not being a soloist, not being limited to any specific form, but being a musician."

About the Artist
With an enviable international reputation, violinist Janine Jansen works regularly with the world's most eminent orchestras and conductors. This season, while she is Perspectives artist at Carnegie Hall, tours are planned with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Daniele Gatti, the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas and Semyon Bychkov, and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under Paavo Järvi. Other highlights this season include engagements with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Paavo Järvi, Munich Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, Staatskapelle Dresden with Antonio Pappano, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Czech Philharmonic with Jakob Hrusa, Oslo Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony with David Afkham, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with Karina Canellakis, and Iceland Symphony with Daniel Blendulf. She will also travel to the Far East and Australia performing with the Singapore, Sydney, and New Zealand symphony orchestras.

A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Jansen joins Mischa Maisky, Martha Argerich, Itamar Golan, and Lily Maisky for a major European chamber music tour. She performs a number of recitals throughout Europe with pianists Alexander Gavrylyuk, Elisabeth Leonskaja, and Kathryn Stott. In 2003, she founded the hugely successful International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht. After 13 years, in June 2016, she stepped down from her position as Artistic Director and named cellist Harriet Krijgh as her successor.

Ms. Jansen records exclusively for Decca Classics and, since recording Vivaldi's Four Seasons in 2003, she has been extremely successful in the digital music charts. Her latest release, conducted by Antonio Pappano, features Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 1 with London Symphony Orchestra and Brahms's Violin Concerto with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Other highlights of her discography include a recording of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, Beethoven and Britten with Paavo Järvi, Mendelssohn and Bruch with Riccardo Chailly, Tchaikovsky with Daniel Harding, as well as an album of Bach Concertos with her own ensemble. Janine has also released a number of chamber music discs, including Schubert's String Quintet and Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht and sonatas by Debussy, Ravel, and Prokofiev with pianist Itamar Golan.

Ms. Jansen has won numerous awards, including four Edison Klassiek Awards, four ECHO Klassik awards, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, NDR Musikpreis for outstanding artistic achievement, and the Concertgebouw Prize. She has been given the VSCD Klassieke Muziekprijs for individual achievement and the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award for performances in the UK. In September 2015, she was awarded the Bremen MusikFest Award. Janine studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn, and Boris Belkin.

Janine Jansen plays the 1707 Stradivarius "Rivaz - Baron Gutmann" violin on loan from Dextra Musica.

Carnegie Hall's Perspectives Series
Now in its 18th season, Carnegie Hall's Perspectives series is an artistic initiative in which select musicians are invited to explore their own musical individuality and create their own personal concert series through collaborations with other musicians and ensembles. In the 2017-2018 season, both pianist Daniil Trifonov and violinist Janine Jansen curate Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall.

Previous Perspectives artists have included Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour; Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso; Indian classical tabla player Zakir Hussain; experimental rocker David Byrne; singer-songwriters Rosanne Cash and James Taylor; as well as conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim; conductors Pierre Boulez, James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Simon Rattle, and David Robertson; violinists Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Christian Tetzlaff; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Emanuel Ax, Evgeny Kissin, Maurizio Pollini, András Schiff, Peter Serkin, and Mitsuko Uchida; sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw; mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato; bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff; the Emerson String Quartet; the Kronos Quartet; and early music ensemble L'Arpeggiata.

Tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.

For Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.

In addition, for all Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts.

Photo Credit: Marco Borggreve.