Dylana Jenson

Dylana Jenson (born May 14, 1961 ) is an American concert violinist and violin teacher. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband, conductor and cellist David Lockington.

Early career Dylana Jenson was born in Los Angeles, California, and was a child prodigy. She began studying violin with her mother when she was two years and ten months old. She then studied with Manuel Compinsky, Nathan Milstein, and Josef Gingold. She made her debut at age eight, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. At age eleven, she performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Schippers conducting.

Later career Jenson made her Carnegie Hall concert debut on December 9, 1980, playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy. In 1981, she recorded the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra for RCA Red Seal. Music critic Edward Downes characterized her work as "unsurpassed since Heifetz."

Jenson had a long-term loan from a violin collector of a 1743 Guarneri violin, After she performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, the search for a new violin led to a decade-long hiatus. and her Shostakovich/Barber CD recording. As of 2014, she is no longer a faculty member. In 2020–2021, she was a visiting associate professor of violin at the University of Notre Dame.

Jenson often performs with the Grand Rapids Symphony under the direction of her husband, David Lockington. These performances included a 2005 return to Carnegie Hall. Harris Goldsmith of the New York Concert Review said of this performance: "Her excellent performance brought to mind, and was a loving tribute to, the great Nathan Milstein... who was one of Jenson's mentors." The Strad said of the same performance: "In Jenson's hands, lyrical passages had an intense, tremulous quality...a sizzling performance.” The album was later reissued on the RCA Victrola label and was reissued on a customer order basis by ArkivMusic as part of its historical reissue series. In 1982, Jenson recorded Brahms Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 3 with pianist Samuel Sanders for RCA Red Seal. Her 2005 Carnegie Hall performance was recorded in its entirety and published by the Grand Rapids Symphony; it includes Jenson performing Goldmark Violin Concerto No. 1. In 2008 Jenson recorded Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Barber Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, played on the Zygmuntowicz violin.