Music Performance

Jen Volmer is a violist, pianist, educator, and lifelong musician whose musical training and performance career have spanned more than three decades.

She began studying piano at age five and twice won the University of Utah Preparatory Division piano competition. She continued her piano studies through college and later taught piano to children ages four and up for ten years in New York City through her own private music studio.

Her primary instrument became the viola, which she studied with David Holland at Interlochen Arts Academy before earning her undergraduate degree at the Eastman School of Music.  At Eastman, she studied with John Graham, where upon graduation she received the Excellence in Chamber Music Award. She was also a two-time winner of the Honors Chamber Music Competition with the Matryoshka String Quartet, under the direction of with Mikhail Kopelman.

After Eastman, she continued her education at New York University, studying with Stephanie Baer and earning an M.A. with a specialization in nonprofit administration. During her time at NYU, she was an Adjunct Professor of violin. 

Her performing career has included chamber music, orchestral performance, touring, education, and entrepreneurial projects. In 2009, she founded Amara Strings, a string trio and quartet performing for special events throughout the New York metropolitan area. The ensemble remained active through 2021. In 2011, she joined the Park Avenue Chamber Orchestra and toured with the ensemble throughout China, continuing with the orchestra for several years before joining the New Conductor's Orchestra, where she has occasionally performed as principal violist.

In 2013, she co-founded the Highline Chamber Ensemble, created to bring beloved and accessible repertoire to audiences in relaxed, informal settings. The following year, she founded Element5, an unconventional ensemble combining cello, violin, viola, marimba, and DJ, which recorded an album of original works.

Today, music remains an important part of her life, though her relationship to it has become more personal. She plays primarily for the joy of it, enjoys attending live concerts, and continues to make chamber music with friends. Across performance, teaching, and decades of disciplined study, music remains one of the practices through which she listens, learns, creates, and connects.