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Stefan Jackiw has carved out a singular career for himself and he seems to be having the time of his life. The Boston-born musician, whom the Boston Globe heralded early on as “one of the most insightful violinists of his generation,” continues to surprise us.

Already famous at the age of 14, he made the front page of the London Times after a performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra that wowed the prickly British public. In his twenties he was part of Ensemble Ditto, a sort of classical boy band that took young Koreans by storm and—a glamorous marketing campaign notwithstanding—produced some of the most remarkable chamber-music recordings of the early 21st century. 

Meanwhile Stefan was already concertizing with major orchestras worldwide while finishing up his bachelor’s degree at Harvard University, where he studied psychology and musicology. He also earned an Artist’s Diploma at New England Conservatory and in 2002 won an Avery Fisher Career Grant.  

Subsequently Stefan (who pronounces his last name ya-keev) has formed partnerships with renowned musicians, producing a delicious recording of the Brahms Violin Sonatas with pianist Max Levinson and a version of the Ives Sonatas (with pianist Jeremy Denk) that “set a new standard,” according to Alex Ross in The New Yorker. He has also become a champion of living composers, with premieres of Violin Concertos by Conrad Tao and David Fulmer, and he performs regularly at festivals and venues worldwide.

In 2015 he and Conrad Tao and cellist Jay Campbell formed the Junction Trio. Stefan has also collaborated with a wide range of soloists (Gil Shaham, Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis, Alisa Weilerstein, Inon Barnatan) and conductors, and recently he has begun teaching the next generation of young violinists: in 2021 he joined the faculty of New York’s Mannes School and starting this fall he’ll teach at Atlanta’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. 

This April 17-19, Stefan performs the Dvořák Violin Concerto with the Kansas City Symphony and guest conductor Louis Langrée. It is Stefan’s sixth appearance in our city since his local debut here in 2006, at a Harriman-Jewell Series performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Moscow State Symphony that was quite simply one of the most astonishing things I’ve ever heard.

“You’d have to go back several generations to find a violinist to compare to Stefan Jackiw,” I wrote in The Kansas City Star, “because there’s almost no one today who is in his league.” I was not alone in my opinion: Musicians and critics were singing Stefan’s praises all over the United States. 

Upon reflection, I believe that what I was hearing was, to an extent, a peculiar amalgamation of the best of Russian, European, and American training (and a splash of Suzuki Method) all rolled into one hugely gifted person. His parents (who were both renowned M.I.T. physicists) recognized his talent when he picked up a violin at age four, but it was the rigor of his training that fostered those gifts. His first teacher in Boston was Zinaida Gilels, a member of one of 20th-century Russia’s most distinguished musical families, who had been a pupil of David Oistrakh.

Paramount to that early-20th-century “Russian style” was a highly expressive, almost operatic lyricism that Stefan clearly absorbed. “I studied with Zinaida from the time I was five years old, and when I was 12, I played the Wieniawski Concerto with the Boston Pops,” Stefan said recently from his home in New York. “So I experienced a huge development with her. … To this day, the way I hold the bow, the way I approach my left-hand work, is from her. I still practice some of the same exercises she gave me, 35 years later.” His next teacher, the French violinist Michèle Auclair, brought the stringency of the Paris Conservatory to bear. “She took my playing to a new level, just because she had such uncompromising standards.” 

At 17, Stefan began studying with the teacher who would bring all of these strands together: Donald Weilerstein, who had just joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory and was known for his philosophical approach to the violin. “It was the right time to start working with him,” Stefan said. “He talked a lot about the state of mind a performer should be in when performing … about emotional vulnerability, about accessing the most expressive parts of yourself.” 

It was a transformational moment for Stefan, as he began “shifting from the idea of playing the violin to impress people to playing the violin to communicate with people.” 

Stefan is no stranger to injury. In 2012 he fell while running and, having suffered a nerve impingement in his neck was essentially off the circuit for six months.  Today, after years of physical therapy and experimenting with different types of shoulder rests, he is in top form and has learned much about “playing healthy.” 

“There was always this secrecy, which brings shame,” he said, of the hush-hush nature of musician injuries. “And that’s never a good thing. It just delays recovery and prevents people from being informed about preventing injury.” 

The experience has taught him the importance of taking stress seriously. Tension is, of course, a blessing and a curse for an artist whose very existence relies on performing what amounts to a highwire act night after night. “In order to create a powerful performance, you have to generate emotional and psychological tension, both for yourself and your listener,” Stefan said. “But it’s very hard to do that … without also generating physical tension. So you’re trying to figure out how to create incredible momentum and tension without tying yourself into a knot.”

There was a silver lining to this treacherous tumble: in 2013, when he would have been in Australia if not for the injury, he met someone special. “I was just sitting at home depressed at being here instead of Australia,” he told Renée-Paule Gauthier in a podcast. “I happened to drag myself out of my apartment and meet up with some friends at a bar here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And I met a girl.” 

It was a meeting of minds: Yoonah Kim is a Juilliard-trained professional clarinetist who now collaborates with Stefan extensively on chamber projects. “Had I been in Australia, I might never have met her,” he said. They were married in June 2020, at the height of the pandemic. 

“Everything was closed but we managed to find a town clerk in upstate New York,” Stefan said with a laugh. “We got our marriage license, drove back to New York, found a spot in Central Park, and hired an officiant to meet us there. It was actually quite nice.” COVID-19 prevented most family members from attending, “so we set up an iPhone and did a Zoom livestream of the whole thing.” 

With the passing of his father, Roman Jackiw, in 2023, Stefan feels he is entering a new phase of life. He has greater responsibility in caring for his mother, and he is gaining new insights through teaching today’s eager artists. “I hear young violinists who are staggering in their ability, but also in their knowledge of different styles.” 

Life begins at 40: up until then you are just doing research, Stefan said, quoting Jung. “So far I’m enjoying my forties. I’m playing music that I want to play and I’m happy to be able to, and I enjoy teaching. … I’m happy with the way my life has turned out.” 

—By Paul Horsley

Stefan Jackiw performs Dvořák with the Kansas City Symphony this April 17-19 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Call 816-471-0400 or go to kcsymphony.org. To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send an email to paul@kcindependent.com or find him on Facebook or X/Instagram (@phorsleycritic).