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Interviewer: Along with Milstein, what violinists inspired you? Does that inspiration find its way into your own playing?
Jenson: I think that listening to others' playing is so essential, because what you're getting from admiring someone is you are understanding that person, and growing from that. There was a period of time in my life when people said to me, "you shouldn't listen to recordings, it should come from inside." Well, what comes out of a person is really what's been put in, not in an imitation process, but in a life experience. My parents were so into that, they would take me to see everyone who was performing in a 200-mile radius -- we went! It didn't matter if it was late at night, they wanted to give me that exposure. And when I was very young, it was David Oistrakh. I really felt very close to him, to his beauty of sound and his approach was so beautiful. Then, my father heard about Nathan Milstein, who was giving master classes when I was about twelve, and my father decided that would be a good thing for me to do, so he called Milstein -- I don't know how he got through -- and Milstein really suggested that I was too young, but my father was absolutely determined. Now, Milstein was a living legend, one of the greatest violinists alive. So my father said, "you'll be going to his classes, you'll have to prepare for a certain repertoire." So I started listening to Milstein's records, and I didn't get it. I just didn't relate to his playing. Oistrakh was more of my musical mentor up to that point. But, I started listening to Milstein, and when I went to the master classes, and saw him in front of me, I understood what it was about. I had to put the person with the playing and see how the two were absolutely truthful to each other. Then, he became the great inspiration in my life.
Interviewer: How did you start playing the violin?
Jenson: I started on the violin when I was two and-a-half with my mother, who is not a violinist. She learned how to play the violin from library books --
Interviewer: -- Really! --
Jenson: -- she would teach herself the night before and teach us the next day, with another brother and sister, the three of us; initiation by just doing it. She taught me for a few years, and then she got up to the Bach Double with me and then couldn't keep up with me, so then I went to a regular teacher. I studied with Manuel Compinsky until I was twelve. He was a wonderful teacher: He really did what my father called "supervised practice." That is, I would have four or five lessons a week, and he would practice with me. What he taught me was how to practice. For example, just to say to somebody, "well, go home and work on your intonation." People have no idea what that requires, and this is what Mr. Compinsky taught me, was how to practice and he was meticulous. I remember many lessons in which I would be exhausted (laughs), practically falling asleep, but he wouldn't let one note go by if it was out of tune. He was such an incredible teacher.
Interviewer: Were you formally trained in an musical institute, such as Juilliard or Curtis?
Jenson: No.
In fact, I quit school in general. I used to go a half-day to public
school, but I went kind of sporadically, from the first to the sixth grade,
from 9 to 12. I quit school, because I was performing a lot, and
travelling around the world. But, I loved to read and I sort of ended
up educating myself, and my parents really let me explore my ideas, and
my obsessions (laughs). In fact, I home school my own children.
I was "unschooled" before it was called something. My father was
at home all the time. He was a writer, and so he was always discussing
some book or some article or speech by somebody, so it was a constant intellectual
stimulation. To be in the house, it would be so exhausting, like,
"Pop, stop it already!" He would even proofread cereal boxes.
