Biography

Stefan Jackiw was born in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, to a Korean mother and a German father of Ukrainian origin, both physicists. His mother, So-Young Pi, teaches at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, and his father, Roman Jackiw

Roman Jackiw

Roman W. Jackiw is a theoretical physicist and Dirac Medallist. Born in Poland, Jackiw received his PhD from Cornell University in 1966 under Hans Bethe and Kenneth Wilson...

, at MIT. His surname, pronounced jack-eev, is of Ukrainian origin. He is the grandson of the late Korean poet Pi Cheon-deuk.

Jackiw started playing the violin at the age of four, when he was given a small instrument that a child of family friends had outgrown. As a young child he took Suzuki method

Suzuki method

The Suzuki method is a method of teaching music that emerged in the mid-20th century.-Background:The Suzuki Method was conceived in the mid-20th century by Shin'ichi Suzuki, a Japanese violinist who desired to bring beauty to the lives of children in his country after the devastation of World War II...

 lessons at the Longy School of Music

Longy School of Music

The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...

. Subsequently, his teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, whom he credits with providing a secure technical foundation, the French violinist Michèle Auclair

Michèle Auclair

Michèle Auclair was a French violinist and teacher.Michèle Auclair was born into a family with sense for arts and culture...

, with whom he began studying at age 12, and former Cleveland Quartet

Cleveland Quartet

The Cleveland Quartet was one of the world's leading string quartets for over two decades. It was founded in 1969 by violinists Donald Weilerstein and Peter Salaff, cellist Paul Katz and violist Martha Strongin Katz, at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The quartet subsequently disbanded in 1995...

 first violinist Donald Weilerstein.

Unlike many musical prodigies, who attend schools for the arts or are home-schooled, Jackiw went through the academic school system, attending the Roxbury Latin School in Boston. After high school he attended Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, starting as a psychology major, then switching to a concentration in music. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2007. The same year, he received an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory (NEC), which he had been attending concurrently.

Some of the great violinists who have especially influenced him are Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...

, Fritz Kreisler

Fritz Kreisler

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...

, Arthur Grumiaux

Arthur Grumiaux

Arthur Grumiaux was a Belgian violinist who was also proficient in piano.-Youth:Grumiaux was born in Villers-Perwin, Belgium to a working-class family, and it was his grandfather who urged him to begin music studies at the age of only 4...

, and Nathan Milstein

Nathan Milstein

Nathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period...

. But his musical role model is cellist Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

. In a 2007 interview with The Harvard Crimson

The Harvard Crimson

The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...

, Jackiw said of Ma, "He throws himself into every activity that he’s involved in. I’ve seen him perform countless times and he is always so involved, and gets the audience involved."

After graduation, Jackiw moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he currently makes his home.

Career

Jackiw made his professional debut at the age of 12, when Boston Pops director Keith Lockhart

Keith Lockhart

For the baseball player, see Keith Lockhart Keith Lockhart , to Newton Frederick and Marilyn Jean Woodyard Lockhart, is an American orchestral conductor....

 invited him to perform on Opening Night in 1997, playing the Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...

 Violin Concerto No. 2. Within a year came appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra

Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...

. In 2000 he made his European debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra

Philharmonia Orchestra

The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...

 in London, with Zander conducting. The critically acclaimed performance landed Jackiw's picture on the front page of The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

, while The Strad reported that "a fourteen-year-old violinist took the London music world by storm." The following year he performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and in recital at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

More than once during his young career he has been called upon on short notice to fill in for other noted violinists: in 2002 for Pamela Frank

Pamela Frank

Pamela Frank is an American violinist, equally well known as a soloist and as a proponent of chamber music.-Biography:She was born in New York City, the daughter of two pianists, Claude Frank and Lilian Kallir. She studied under Shirley Givens using the Givens Method, unlike many of her...

 with the Baltimore Symphony. The 2002 substitution with the Baltimore Symphony, under Yuri Temirkanov

Yuri Temirkanov

Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov is a Russian conductor of Circassian origin.Yuri Temirkanov has been the Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic since 1988.-Early life:...

, led to a continuing relationship with that orchestra, which included a tour of Japan in 2002 and a performance at the Winter Arts Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, a year later.

Among other American orchestras with which he has collaborated are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...

 (with which he debuted in the 2002 season under Roberto Abbado), the New York Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...

, the Cleveland Orchestra

Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...

, the San Francisco Symphony

San Francisco Symphony

The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...

, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District.-History:...

, the Minnesota Orchestra

Minnesota Orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...

, the Indianapolis

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is a major American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana.Annually, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performs 200 concerts for over 350,000 people. It is the largest performing arts organization in Indiana. The ISO is currently one of only 18 American...

, Nashville, Milwaukee, Seattle

Seattle Symphony

The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra's season runs from September through July, and serves as the pit orchestra for most productions of the Seattle Opera in addition to its own concerts...

, and Utah Symphonies, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Abroad, he has performed with the Seoul Philharmonic

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra

The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1948, is one of the oldest and most famous orchestras in South Korea. Its first foreign tour came on a 1965 trip to Japan, followed by performances in Southeast Asia in 1977, the United States in 1982, 1986 and 1996, a 1988 tour of Europe before the...

, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is an English orchestra. Originally based in Bournemouth, the BSO moved its offices to the adjacent town of Poole in 1979....

, l'Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Ulster Orchestra

Ulster Orchestra

The Ulster Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Belfast, the only full-time professional orchestra in Northern Ireland. The orchestra plays the majority of its concerts in Belfast's Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall...

, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and the Asian Youth Orchestra.

Among Jackiw's chamber music and recital activities have been appearances in the Rising Stars Series at the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals, the Boston Celebrity Series, Rockport Chamber Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

's Accolades series, Louvre Recital Series in Paris, and Mostly Mozart Festival.
He is a regular performer at the summer and winter festival concerts of the Seattle Chamber Music Society

Seattle Chamber Music Society

The Seattle Chamber Music Society is an American organization of musicians located in Seattle, Washington that is dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. Established in 1982, the presenting organization is currently in its 30th Anniversary Season...

. He has been a member of the Korean chamber ensemble Ditto, and is a former member of the Tessara Quartet, founded in New York in 2007.

Honors

Stefan Jackiw has received a number of honors, including:

• Avery Fisher Career Grant (2002)
• Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts
• Best debut of the year, 2004-2005 season, Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
  
  
• One of the top two solo appearances of the year, Boston Globe (2002)

Discography

• Brahms Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Max Levinson (Sony Classical, 2009)
• Prodigies: Violin Masterpieces from the Greatest Talents (Classic FM, ASIN: B0015CXXD8)
• Richard Strauss - Ein Heldenleben, et al. Benjamin Zander, New England Conservatory (CPI Records, ASIN: B001LGIQKS)

External links

• Stefan Jackiw Official Site.
• Website at Opus 3 Artists.
• "SPOTLIGHT: Stefan P. Jackiw '07," article in The Harvard Crimson, Feb. 22, 2007.