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Interviewer: And, of course, later, you studied under Nathan Milstein.
Jenson: That was after I was a student of Mr. Compinsky. When I started taking master classes with Milstein, he said: "You don't need a teacher, you need to be free to experiment," which just made me ecstatic. I was already twelve and thought "I'm ready to be on my own," and I did pretty much stay on my own until I was fifteen-and-a-half, and my family moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where I studied with Josef Gingold, for about a year and-a-half. It was fascinating for me to live in Bloomington, because not only did I study with Gingold, which was very interesting for me, but I would also go to the master classes at the University of Indiana.
Interviewer: One of my favorite movies takes place there, Breaking Away.
Jenson: That was just fantastic! My brother was there when they made that and they had to get people to come to the stadium scene and he was in that final scene in the crowd for the Little 500.
Interviewer: So you studied at the University of Indiana?
Jenson: No, I just lived there, and studied with Mr. Gingold, and I would just go to all the master classes. It was so incredible for me to experience all the masters who were there, to just go listen. At the same time, every summer, or whenever I was in Europe performing, I would go see Milstein. He was so incredible. He was just sort of my mentor in life. He was just such an incredibly honest person, so committed to his art. His life was his art, and he was just a great....great man. Later I moved to New York, where I was just performing, after the Tchaikovsky competition.
Interviewer: You have been concertizing less frequently than you did, say, ten years ago.
Jenson: An unfortunate thing happened. I had a large career, was travelling all over the place, and I met my husband in Denver -- I played the Beethoven Concerto there -- and we met, and obviously decided to get married, and I sent out invitations to this upcoming wedding, including sending one to the gentleman who was lending me the Guarnerius del Gesu violin to record, and perform on. He then contacted me, and said "you have two weeks to return the violin, because obviously you're not committed to your career if you're getting married."
Interviewer: That's why he wanted it back?!
Jenson: You have to understand that 15 years ago, there weren't many women soloists -- with the exception of singers -- Anne-Sophie Mutter and me; we really had yet to come on the scene. In the United States, there were maybe a handful of woman soloists. So, I don't think there's a history there to accept that women are soloists and could be committed to their careers. So, I convinced him to let me have it an additional week, and I played Brahms' Concerto in San Francisco. Then, I had to return it, and I thought, "I have a full season, three years booked ahead. There's not going to be a problem, I'll be able to find something to play on." Unfortunately, I was young enough that I didn't want to oppose anyone who was helping me with my career. At that time, I had a manager who was an older gentleman, and I immediately spoke to him about this problem, and he said "well you can't let anybody know you don't have a violin, because if you do, I can't book concerts for you." And I said, "well, if they don't know I don't have a violin, how am I supposed to play these concerts you've booked me to do?" He said, "well that's not my problem." And of course, I had a ten-year recording contract with RCA and I had a recording coming up of the Brahms Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and they also said they could not help me find an instrument. So, I was kind of left in a quandary, because I couldn't be open about the fact that I didn't have an instrument. But, then again, I was performing concerts. Luckily, I had a friend who was a small dealer, and he would lend me things that were in his shop. Or, at one time I rented a violin. One time I went to an orchestra and I didn't have a violin, so I asked somebody in the violin section if they had an extra instrument I could play on. So, time was passing and my anxiety was rising and I tried every scheme to raise money, to beg, to find something permanent to play on because the instruments I was performing on were very inferior and I was constantly changing. The first year I was without a violin, I played on 23 different instruments.
