Janine Jansen is a Dutch violinist, born on January 7, 1978, in Soest, Utrecht province. She grew up in a musical family and began studying the violin at the age of six. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Coosje Wijzenbeek and at the Utrecht Conservatory with Philippe Hirschhorn and Boris Belkin.
Jansen made her debut in 2001, performing Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Scottish National Youth Orchestra. Her chamber music partners have included Julian Rachlin, Yuri Bashmet, Heinrich Schiff, Kathryn Stott, Mischa Maisky, Emmanuel Pahud, and Maxim Rysanov. She has also performed with major orchestras under conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Riccardo Chailly, Roger Norrington, Frans Brüggen, Mikhail Pletnev, and Lorin Maazel.
Her repertoire includes works by Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bartók, Britten, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Pärt. A review of her performances of Bach’s partitas and inventions praised her clear intonation, considered phrasing, and refined sound, while describing her restrained approach as somewhat affected.
Her awards include the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist award in 2002 and 2004, a Dutch Ministry of Culture music award in 2003, the Edison Award in 2004 and 2005, and the ECHO Klassik award in 2006. She also received the Jan Vermeer Prize in 2018 and the Herbert von Karajan Prize in 2020.