Jennifer Frautschi (/ˈfraʊtʃi/; born 1973^[1]) is an American violinist. A recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, she is currently Artist-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. She plays a 1722 Antonio Stradivari violin known as the "ex-Cadiz," on loan from a private American foundation.^[2][3]

Frautschi was born in Pasadena, California and began to play the violin at the age of three.^[2] At the Colburn School in Los Angeles she was a student of Robert Lipsett and later attended Harvard University, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School, where she studied under Robert Mann.^[2]

Following top prizes at the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Naumburg International Violin Competition in New York, Frautschi received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1999. She has appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Pierre Boulez, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach at the Ravinia Festival, Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Utah Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and the Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo among others.^[2]

In 2004, Frautschi made her recital debut at Carnegie Hall in New York.^[2] In Europe, she has appeared in world-class classical musical venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Vienna, and Cité de la Musique in Paris.^[2] She has also played with various operas and festivals around the globe including the Imperial Garden in Beijing, La Monnaie in Brussels, La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, and San Miguel de Allende Festival in Mexico.^[2]

In 2008-09 she toured America for three weeks with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, playing composers such as Mendelssohn and Bruch. In 2010–2011 she performed with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and toured the UK with musicians from Prussia Cove, appearing again at the Wigmore Hall.^[2]

Frautschi has released three records for Artek including an orchestral debut recording of the Prokofiev concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and NAXOS, including a recording of Schoenberg's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, which earned a Grammy nomination,^[4] and the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London.^[2]

The Kansas City Star said of her performance, "Frautschi possesses a lush, florid tone, a sure musical sense and a forthright knowledge of where she wants to go with any given phrase".^[5]

Frautschi loves the Sanrio character Badtz Maru. Her father is the theoretical physicist Steven Frautschi.