Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi has garnered worldwide acclaim as a deeply expressive, musically adventurous violinist with impeccable technique and a wide-ranging repertoire. Equally at home in the classic and contemporary repertoire, her recent seasons have featured performances and recordings of works ranging from Robert Schumann and Lili Boulanger to Barbara White and Arnold Schoenberg. She has also had the privilege of premiering several new works composed for her by prominent living composers. Critics have described her performances as “electrifying,” “riveting,” and “mesmerizing,” lauding her “staggering energy and finesse” and “fierce expression.” After a recent performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto, Cleveland Classical wrote: “We witnessed the most magnificent performance by a guest soloist in recent memory. From the outset of the Brahms Concerto, she was a stunning presence, her playing a breathtaking conflation of grace and grit, and at times, downright ferocious.” 

Ms. Frautschi’s concerto appearances have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänska, Boston Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo Opera House. Her 2022-23 season featured engagements with the Indianapolis Symphony and New World Symphony, re-engagements with the New Mexico Philharmonic and the Santa Rosa Symphony, and a residency at the North Carolina School of the Arts. During the 2022 summer season, she has been invited to perform at Chamber Music Northwest, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe Music Festival, Salt Bay Chamberfest, Sarasota Music Festival, Tippet Rise, and Vivace Festival.  

Ms. Frautschi is an Artist Member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and has performed at virtually all of the premier chamber music series and festivals in the United States: Caramoor, Charlottesville, Lake Champlain, La Musica, Moab, Newport, Ojai, Salt Bay, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Spoleto USA Chamber Music Festivals; Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, and Tippet Rise Arts Center; and at the Library of Congress, New York’s Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums of Art, the 92nd Street Y, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Phillips Collection, and Mainly Mozart in San Diego.  

Internationally, she has been invited to present recitals in the Salzburg Mozarteum, Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, Brussels’ Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Beijing’s Imperial Garden, and toured England with musicians from Prussia Cove. She has performed at Chanel’s Pygmalion Series in Tokyo, the Cartagena International Music Festival in Columbia, San Miguel de Allende Festival in Mexico, the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds and Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy, Pharo’s Trust in Cyprus, Kutna Hora Festival in the Czech Republic, Toronto Summer Music in Canada, and St. Barth’s Music Festival in the French West Indies. She has premiered important new works by Barbara White, Mason Bates, Oliver Knussen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michael Hersch, and others, and has appeared at New York’s George Crumb Festival and Stefan Wolpe Centenary Concerts.  

Her extensive discography includes several discs for Naxos: the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by the legendary Robert Craft, and two GRAMMY-nominated recordings–Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (nominated for “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance” in 2006) and the Schoenberg Third String Quartet (nominated for “Best Chamber Music Performance” in 2011). Her most recent releases are with pianist John Blacklow on Albany Records: the complete sonatas of Robert Schumann, and American Duos, featuring works by contemporary American composers Barbara White, Steven Mackey, Elena Ruehr, Dan Coleman, and Stephen Hartke. The three recordings she released on Artek have received universal acclaim: the two Prokofiev Concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony; music of Ravel and Stravinsky for violin and piano; and 20th-century works for solo violin. Other recent recordings include a disc of Romantic Horn Trios, with hornist Eric Ruske and pianist Stephen Prutsman, and the Stravinsky Duo Concertant with pianist Jeremy Denk.  

Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi began the violin at age three under the Suzuki Method. She was a student of Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. She attended Harvard, the University of Southern California, the New England Conservatory of Music, and finished her studies with Robert Mann at The Juilliard School. She is an Artist-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. She performs on a glorious Antonio Stradivarius violin from 1722, the “ex-Cadiz,” on generous loan to her from a private American foundation with support from Rare Violins in Consortium.