Jenny Douglass has built a multifaceted career as a violist, educator, event producer, and writer, with a musical life that spans concert halls, classrooms, and some unexpected destinations.
Since 1999, Jenny has served as Principal Violist of the Marin Symphony, appearing as soloist in concertos by Jennifer Higdon and William Walton, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Jeremy Constant, and Bruch’s Double Concerto with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. A member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra since 2008, she performed alongside Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg in Lera Auerbach’s Sogno di Stabat Mater. Jenny is a frequent substitute with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, and on European tours. Jenny has toured North and South America, Europe, and Asia with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and can be heard on several of their recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.
As the Marin Symphony’s Director of Education and Community Engagement from 2015-2022, Jenny developed programs that brought musicians into schools and community settings, including San Quentin Prison. In 2019, she created and produced a Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra tour, taking 90 teenagers to Europe to perform in Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. Her proudest achievement? Bringing them all back.
A devoted chamber musician, Jenny has performed at festivals throughout the United States and collaborated with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Joseph Silverstein, Daniel Hope, Bruno Giuranna, and members of the San Francisco and Boston Symphonies. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School and counts Eugene Lehner, Lynne Ramsey, and Karen Tuttle among her extraordinary teachers.
Jenny is now bringing her performing and teaching experiences to a new endeavor: a biography of violinist and pedagogue Louis Krasner, celebrated for commissioning and premiering Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto. A former student of Krasner’s, she is drawing on his unpublished speeches and writings, along with more than 80 interviews with former students and colleagues, to illuminate his musical legacy. You can follow her writing journey at Rosin & Ink on Substack.