Jory Lane just graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a degree in violin performance. Now he’s being heard by more than a million people around the country as one of five Performance Today Young Artists in residence.
“I’ve never remembered a time when I wasn’t playing music,” says Lane, who has been playing music since he was two years old. Growing up in Colorado Springs, he started fiddle and mandolin, learning bluegrass and improv, until he was nine years old, when a teacher noticed Lane getting restless.
“He’s like, you should try learning classical music,” and as Lane recalls, “I just took to it like a duck to water.”
That eventually led him to the Eastman School of Music, where he studied for the past few years, and just graduated this spring with a degree in violin performance.
He still plays bluegrass and other styles in bands with friends, and even placed recently in a national mandolin competition.
In the classical music he plays, Lane says he aims to bring a sense of freedom and playfulness along with discipline. “There’s so much feeling so much intention behind every single pen stroke that these composers do,” he explained, “If you just stand up there and kind of half-heartedly recite it, you’re not doing anyone justice.”
You can hear more performances and an extended interview with Jory Lane on the Performance Today website.
