Jorja Fleezanis
Violin
Former Concertmaster, Minnesota Orchestra
Professor, Indiana University
Jorja Fleezanis was concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1989 to 2009—the longest-tenured concertmaster in the orchestra's history and only the second woman in the U.S. to hold the title of concertmaster in a major orchestra when appointed. Prior to Minnesota, she was associate concertmaster with the San Francisco Symphony for eight years and at age 23 began her orchestral career by joining the Chicago Symphony. In the fall of 2009 she was appointed the Henry A. Upper Chair in Orchestra Studies and Professor of Violin at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
A devoted teacher, Fleezanis became an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota's School of Music in 1990. She has also enjoyed teaching roles with other organizations: teacher and artist at the Round Top International Festival Institute in Texas (1990-2007); artist-in-residence at the University of California, Davis; guest artist and teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory, where she served on the faculty from 1981 to 1989; artist and mentor at the Music@Menlo Festival (2003-present; teacher and coach at the New World Symphony (1988-present), and a visiting teacher at the Boston Conservatory, the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Interlochen Academy and Summer Camp.
Fleezanis has had a number of works commissioned for her: the John Adams Violin Concerto and Ikon of Eros by John Tavener also recorded on Reference Records, and Aaron Jay Kernis' Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky on CRI, commissioned for Fleezanis by the Schubert Club of St. Paul. Other recordings include Stefan Wolpe's Violin Sonata for Koch International and the complete violin sonatas of Beethoven with the French fortepianist Cyril Huvé, released in 2003 on the Cyprés label.
Fleezanis studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She plays a violin by the Venetian maker Matteo Gofriller made in 1700.