Violinist Stefan Jackiw is recognized as one of his generation’s most significant artists, captivating audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. Hailed for “talent that’s off the scale” (Washington Post) Jackiw has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco symphony orchestras, among others, and he has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Marin Alsop, Andrew Davis, Hannu Lintu, Ludovic Morlot, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Mikhail Pletnev, Gerard Schwarz and Yuri Temirkanov. His solo performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at Australia’s Sydney Opera House in March was seen live on YouTube by more than 30 million people worldwide.
During the 2011/12 season Jackiw makes his debut with the Atlanta Symphony under Nicholas McGegan and the Rotterdam Philharmonic in France led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He enjoys return engagements with the Chicago Symphony (Trevor Pinnock), Toronto Symphony (Christopher Koenig) and Rochester Philharmonic (Arild Remmereit). Additional highlights include recitals at the Kennedy Center under the auspices of the Washington Performing Arts Society and in Chicago with pianist Jeremy Denk, presented by the Chicago Symphony.
This past summer Jackiw performed at a number of music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival and Seattle Chamber Music Society. He toured Asia twice, first playing chamber music with Ensemble Ditto in Korea, and a month-long tour as soloist with the Asian Youth Symphony performing Saint-Saëns, Sarasate and Sibelius in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan.
In 2010/11, Jackiw was reunited with the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Marin Alsop, who also conducted his return to the Baltimore Symphony. During the winter he toured with the London Philharmonic, appearing in London and Madrid under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and in Seoul under Vassily Sinaisky.
Jackiw made his European debut in London in 2002 to great critical acclaim, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Benjamin Zander. His sensational performance was featured on the front page of London’s Times; The Strad reported, “A 14-year-old violinist took the London music world by storm.” Jackiw has also performed in Europe with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Ulster Orchestra of Ireland, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Invited by Yuri Temirkanov, Jackiw performed Barber’s Violin Concerto as part of the Winter Arts Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Also in 2002, Jackiw made his debut with the Baltimore Symphony under Temirkanov, followed by a tour of Japan with the orchestra that included his Tokyo debut at Suntory Hall. Later that season, he made debuts with the Boston and Chicago Symphonies, both conducted by Roberto Abbado. Jackiw’s performance with the Boston Symphony was selected by the Boston Globe as one of the top two solo appearances of the year. In the 2004-05 season, Jackiw made his debut with the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. Both the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer chose this performance as the best debut of the year.
Jackiw’s New York Philharmonic debut occurred in July 2007 under the direction of Ludovic Morlot in the “Concerts in the Parks” series. The next month, he appeared with the Boston Symphony and Morlot at Tanglewood and was immediately re-engaged for the following summer under Hans Graf. In 2008, Jackiw made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and the San Francisco Symphony under James Gaffigan. He was reunited with Davis for his Philadelphia and Toronto Symphony debuts in the 2009-10 season, with Schwarz for his Montreal debut, and he enjoyed new collaborations with Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra, Andris Nelsons and the Pittsburgh Symphony, and Arild Remmereit with the Cincinnati Symphony.
Jackiw is also an active recitalist and chamber musician. He has performed in numerous important festivals and concert series, including the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Celebrity Series of Boston, New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival and Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Louvre Recital Series in Paris. He is a regular participant at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Bravo! Vail Valley Music and Bard Music Festivals. At the opening night of Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York, Jackiw was the only young artist invited to perform, playing alongside such artists as Emanuel Ax, Renée Fleming, Evgeny Kissin, and James Levine.
On disc, Jackiw is garnering acclaim for his debut album of the Brahms Violin Sonatas with pianist Max Levinson (Sony). Fanfare magazine proclaimed, “Jackiw is fantastic … This is now the recording of Brahms’s violin sonatas to have.”
Born in 1985 to physicist parents of Korean and German descent, Stefan Jackiw began playing the violin at the age of four. His teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, Michèle Auclair, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, as well as an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory. In 2002, the young artist was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. He makes his home in New York City.
