A little about me…

My name is Jana Kaminsky and I am a German/American violinist and violist currently based in Florida, Georgia, and North/South Carolina. I am a member of the Greenville Symphony, Venice Symphony, and Palm Beach Symphony and regularly play with the Charleston Symphony, Asheville Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and more. I teach a full hybrid-style violin studio (online and in-person) with three recitals a year. I completed my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in violin performance at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montreal, Canada, and afterwards, I completed a Performance Diploma at Indiana University, the Jacobs School of Music.

Full bio: I started playing violin when I was five years old, and continued to take lessons and perform through elementary, middle, and high school. I led multiple orchestras as concertmaster, appeared as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals, and performed in competitions and festivals on both the east and west coasts of North America. I won prizes in competitions like the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival, the Performing Arts Festival of the Eastside (first place), and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. I later on also broadened my studies by playing viola, piano, guitar, studying composition, and singing as a soloist in choirs.

I pursued my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance at McGill University with acclaimed violinists, Axel Strauss and Violaine Melancon, graduating in 2020 and 2022. I played with the McGill Symphony Orchestra and McGill’s Contemporary Music Ensemble where I was featured as principal second violin. I finished up my studies with a two-year performance diploma at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with World-renowned violinist Mark Kaplan. There, I was selected to play in the Vehrder Project, a funded opportunity for a student Clarinet/Violin/Piano trio to perform and hour of new and contemporary works commissioned for the now retired Vehrder Trio. I also performed with the Indiana University Baroque ensemble, leading and soloing with the ensemble. I then performed Jessie Montgomery “Banner” for string quartet and orchestra with the Bloomington Symphony as solo second violin, and tackled Bartok’s first Sonata for Violin and Piano in my graduating recital. During my studies at IU, I also led an ad-hoc orchestra as concert master, and was contracted into regional orchestras.

After my studies, I won a position as section violinist with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, was offered a year long contract with both the Venice Symphony and Palm Beach Symphony which have extended into the 2025-26 year. During the 2024-2025 season I played in a different orchestras every week appearing alongside soloists like Violinist Gil Shaham, Mandolinist Christ Thile, and Cellist Jonothan Schwartz.

Outside of school, I have performed in masterclasses including those led by French violinist Régis Pasquier, concert violinist Rachel Barton Pine, concert master of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Martin Chalifour, world-renowned French violinist, Pierre Amoyal, Soloist, Vadim Gluzman and American violinist and professor, Paul Kantor. My performances have led me to the Summer Violin Institute at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music in Chicago, Illinois, Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and Collegium musicum Pommersfelden in Bamberg, Germany where I was invited to play for specialty concerts including a performance of the Faure Piano Quartet no. 1 for Collegium Musicum’s Rising Star Concert. I have performed a wide range of repertoire in genres from baroque to contemporary, advancing my technical abilities. In 2021, I was featured in the IRCAM forum playing a piece for Violin and Electronics called Prelude 3 by Joy Blanchard.

Alongside all my solo and orchestra adventures, I organized two private chamber concerts in Seattle, WA, featuring female composed works for string quartet, and was featured at Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in a solo string quartet concert. This summer I will be playing viola in the Silver Bay String Quartet at the Silver Bay YMCA retreat.