Jorja Fleezanis

Artist Biography

Jorja Fleezanis was concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1989 to 2009, having assumed that position after eight years with the San Francisco Symphony as associate concertmaster. A frequent soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Fleezanis has performed the Elgar, Weill and Berg Violin Concertos, Bernstein’s Serenade and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons in recent years.

The Minnesota Orchestra commissioned two major solo works for Fleezanis, the John Adams Violin Concerto and Ikon of Eros by John Tavener, the latter recorded on Reference Records. Her recording of the complete violin sonatas of Beethoven with the French fortepianist Cyril Huvé was released in 2003 on the Cyprés label. Other recordings include Aaron Jay Kernis’ Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky on CRI, commissioned for Fleezanis by the Schubert Club, and, with Garrick Ohlsson, Stefan Wolpe’s Violin Sonata for Koch International. Her performance of the premiere of Nicholas Maw’s Sonata for Solo Violin, commissioned for her by Minnesota Public Radio, was broadcast on St. Paul Sunday in 1998, and in 1999 she gave the British premiere at the Chester Summer Festival. In 1998, Fleezanis was the violin soloist in the American premiere of Britten’s recently discovered Double Concerto for Violin and Viola.

Fleezanis is frequently a visiting teacher with the New World Symphony and has been on the faculty of the Round Top International Festival Institute since 1991. She has been an artist and teacher at the Music@Menlo Festival since its debut season in 2003. She is currently professor of music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.