MASTERING THE ART OF VIOLIN PLAYING THROUGH PHYSICAL FREEDOM
Dylana Jenson is the Visiting Associate Professor of the Practice in Violin and Viola at the University of Notre Dame. Jenson’s background includes 50 years of international travel as a violin soloist, and teaching at the university level as a Distinguished Professor.
Dylana Jenson started playing the violin at the age of two and a half with her mother, who did not play the violin. She learned the violin using the Russian technique taught by Leopold Auer. Great artists such as Nathan Milstein, David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern and Jascha Heifetz used this approach. This method develops a natural physical relationship to the instrument.
From ages 7 to 11, Ms. Jenson spent many hours per week with Manuel Compinsky, her teacher, in ‘supervised practice’. Slow and careful work on intonation was critical in developing secure technical facility. She then studied with Nathan Milstein and Josef Gingold.
Dylana Jenson has performed with most major orchestras in the United States and traveled to Europe, Australia, Japan and Latin America for concerts, recitals and recordings. After her triumphant success at the age of 17 in the International Tchaikovsky Competition, where she became the youngest and first American woman to win the Silver Medal, she made her Carnegie Hall debut playing the Sibelius Concerto with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and recorded this on RCA.
Ms. Jenson was made an Honorary Citizen of Costa Rica, at the age of 13, for her artistic contribution to her mother’s homeland. Dylana Jenson comes from a family with a strong tradition in the arts. Her sister, Vicky Jenson, directed the films ‘Shrek’ and ‘Shark Tale’. Her brother Ivan is a painter and poet. Her uncle, Alvaro Cardona-Hine, was a celebrated painter and author.
In tandem with her solo career Jenson has been busy giving Masterclasses and teaching at summer music festivals.