Janine Jansen

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Janine Jansen (Utrecht, 1978) is a Dutch solo violinist.

She took up the violin at the age of 6. She appeared as the soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in 2001, where she performed the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, opus 77. She opened the BBC Proms in 2005.

Janine studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn, and Boris Belkin. She is very adventurous with her performance, with emphasis on communication more than on precision or adherence to status quo. Her tone is of extremely fine quality. Her recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons is a good example of her style. She eschews tradition in two ways: recording with only 5 solo strings rather than an orchestra, including her brother as cellist and father playing continuo, and...

Her performance of the Tschaikovsky Concerto with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting is considered by some to be one of the greatest performances in her generation.

As of January 2006, there are two mainstream CDs (one also a hybrid SACD) available of her playing. The first is a collection of encore pieces, conducted by Barry Wordsworth, the second a chamber ensemble rendition of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

In October 2006, Janine released her third album in the Netherlands (available internationally in January 2007). The CD features the classic repertoire pairing of the Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos but with the added bonus of the far more unusual Bruch Romance for Viola