Jesse Mills, violin
Since his concerto debut at the Ravinia Festival in 2004, two-time Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills has established a unique career, performing music from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention. The Washington Post claimed, “Mills played [Messiaen] as if he'd just received it from some distant, vast, and magnificent reach of the cosmos.”
Mr. Mills is a founding member of the Horszowski Trio, which has concertized throughout the US, Europe, and Asia since 2011, including a sold-out debut at Wigmore Hall in London in 2019. Their latest recording of the complete Schumann Piano Trios was released on AVIE Records to great critical acclaim. As a member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001–03, Mr. Mills performed music composed during the last 50 years (including the famous six-hour-long String Quartet No. 2 by Morton Feldman), in addition to frequent world premieres. As a composer and arranger, Mr. Mills has been commissioned by venues including Columbia University’s Miller Theatre and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR.
A co-founder of Duo Prism, he earned, along with pianist Rieko Aizawa, First Prize at the 2006 Zinetti International Competition in Italy. He and Ms. Aizawa are co-artistic directors of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Silverthorne, CO. Mr. Mills is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann, and Itzhak Perlman. He lives in New York City, and he is on the faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and at Brooklyn College.