Janine Jansen

The Dutch violinist, Janine Jansen, began to study the violin at age 6. Her father is the organist and harpsichordist Jan Jansen and both her brothers are also musicians. Her mother is a classical singer. Janine studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philippe Hirschhorn, and Boris Belkin. She was a previous BBC New Generation Artist and in September 2003 she received the Dutch Music Prize from the Ministry of Culture - the highest distinction an artist can receive in The Netherlands.

Ever since her Concertgebouw debut in 1997, Janine Jansen has been a huge star in her native Holland. Today she is internationally recognised as one of the great violinists - a truly exciting and versatile artist. She appeared as soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in 2001, where she performed the Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto.

Janine Jansen 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 status quo. 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 Berliner Philharmoniker 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 has an exclusive recording contract with Decca.  As of January 2006, she had recorded two mainstream CD’s. The first is a collection of encore pieces, conducted by Barry Wordsworth, the second a chamber ensemble rendition of Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons. In particular, her Vivaldirecording has seen great success in terms of downloading sales. In October 2006, she released her third album. This CD features the Felix Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos, along with the Bruch Romance for Viola, with conductor Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. 

In 2007 she released her fourth album, J.S. Bach: Inventions & Partita. The L.v. Beethoven was recorded with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the B. Brittenwith 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.