Faculty Friday with Madeleine Jansen

It's another Faculty Friday! For first time readers, our Faculty Friday blog is a series of questions and responses meant to feature instructors from Luzerne Music Center in a unique light. Focusing not only on their professional career, we ask faculty questions that give students and readers a glimpse into their daily lives.

This week's focus is on Madeleine Jansen, a Junior and Senior Session violin instructor at LMC. Maintaining a large and active private studio during the year in New York City, Madeleine also keeps busy as a performer. Not only a fantastic classical musician, Madeleine has also performed with Michael Bublé, Rod Steward, Josh Groban, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and on NBC's Today Show. Hear what she has to say about NYC living, travel, performing and coffee!

Tell us a little bit about your history with LMC- how did you get connected and how many summers have you been on faculty?

This is my fifth summer at LMC! I always wanted a summer teaching job at a music festival, ever since I went to a camp very similar to Luzerne when I was 15. My experience at that camp was what made me want to become a professional violinist, so I always wanted to pay that inspiration forward to the next generation of musicians. A colleague of mine heard about the opening a few years back and referred me.

You are currently teaching in New York City. Is it hard to transition from NYC living to Upstate living?

While I am a city girl at heart, I think of Lake Luzerne as my home away from home. I love that I get to spend my summers in such a beautiful location, totally surrounded by nature. The bugs and the rustic living conditions can be tough, but a daily trip over the mountain to Spektor Coffee Roasters (the BEST coffee shop in the Adirondacks!) gives me the comfort of home and keeps my spirit up :)

Besides practice, what is the number one piece of advice that you would give to aspiring young musicians?

Careers are an endurance game- stay focused and don't give up after early set backs. The people who reach the highest career successes are the ones who keep pushing themselves.

In your bio, you mention performances with some pop legends. What inspired your interest in pop?

While I am primarily a classical player, I love playing pop shows! I grew up listening to pop and really enjoy being a part of those productions. A lot of times they are over the top and totally outrageous, with crazy stage and lighting effects. Its so much fun to mix things up and play a different style of music.

We hear that you are a big traveler! Is there something that you try to do in every new place that you visit?

I'm a pretty serious coffee drinker, so a fun thing I try to do for myself is find the best coffee shop in whatever city I'm in. I think I've talked more about coffee than violin in this interview.

If you are feeling snack-ish, do you prefer something salty or something sweet?

Always sweet!