Jennifer Ross

Principal Second Violin

The Brachman Smith Family Chair

Violinist Jennifer Ross has enjoyed a full and varied career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. She began her career at the age of 19 as Associate Concertmaster of the Honolulu Symphony, and after graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music, won a position in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra where she spent 5 seasons. Ms. Ross went on to spend nearly 20 years as the Principal Second Violin of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where she performed under Music Directors Mariss Jansons and Manfred Honeck, touring world-wide, recording extensively, winning 2 Grammy Awards and performing as soloist. She has been a guest artist with the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and L’Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal. She also served as Concertmaster of the Vermont Symphony and is currently the Principal Second Violin of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Ross maintains an active chamber music career and has collaborated with many of the world’s great artists including Pinchas Zuckerman, Johannes Moser, Denis Kozhukhin, Lynn Harrell and Jaime Laredo. She has performed with numerous chamber ensembles and music festivals including the Detroit Chamber Players, the Colorado Chamber Players, Camera Lucida, Strings in the Mountains, and more than 35 years at the Grand Teton Music Festival. She is also a founding member of Jackson Hole Chamber Music.

Much in demand as a teacher, Ms. Ross coaches regularly at the New World Symphony in Miami, the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, and the National Orchestral Institute, where she serves as Artist in Residence for Orchestral Studies. She was a faculty member at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and sat on the jury for the Sphinx Competition for Black and Latino String Players. Ms. Ross continues to give violin master classes, audition clinics, lectures and Yoga for Musicians Workshops at major music schools, universities and festivals across the country.

Among her pursuits outside the music realm, Ms. Ross is an avid hiker, cyclist, cross-country skier, and runner, completing 13 marathons including Boston. She is trained as a Wilderness First Responder, a Certified Yoga Instructor, and a member of the Community Emergency Response Team of Teton County. Recently retired from the Pittsburgh Symphony, Ms. Ross makes Jackson, Wyoming her permanent home.

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