Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Hanson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up in a small community in the Black Hills in South Dakota, I started music at an early age and luckily had a great musical community in this little hidden gem in the Midwest. Violin and piano were my main hobbies and almost always trumped sports or any other activities. The music community really drilled into me the techniques I needed to express myself.
I received a full-ride for violin performance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and had the amazing opportunity to work with some truly gifted people, including the enigmatic Chiara Quartet. They pushed me to dig deep into myself and go beyond what I thought I ever believed I was capable of.
After college, I flexed hard into nontraditional inspirations and began playing with different bands and experimenting with improvisation. I played through jazz standards, gypsy jazz, bluegrass, folk, pop, country, blues, and pretty much any genre I could fit violin into.
Yet although working with groups was exciting and energetic, I started to feel the need to learn how to create my own music, which as a violinist (usually a soloing instrument) seemed like a massive undertaking.
So I invested time into learning audio engineering, recording, and producing as well as songwriting and composing. It’s been a hard learning curve but I’m so satisfied with creating my own music, it really means everything to me.
I’m still learning, but I now have the skills and capacity to create and it’s a lifelong skill I will always cherish. My releases are currently out on all streaming platforms and I am currently cooking up a Christmas release – be on the lookout!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Music and creating music are never really smooth roads to take. There are bumps and turns that you never expect so you have to learn how to go with the flow of the work. I think one of the hardest parts is being versatile and basically learning every aspect of the music business by putting on several hats to make it all work. There’s making the music, but then there’s also marketing, social media, making content, creating videos, recording, producing, fine-tuning, learning, performing, etc. There’s definitely a lot to manage. A lot of the time, you are learning as you go and you have to be ok with that and like I said, go with the flow.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a multi-instrumentalist. I perform solo, with other bands (folk, bluegrass, gypsy jazz, country), with symphony orchestras, with Mannheim Steamroller, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Michael Buble, Andrea von Kampen, and other artists. I also work in the studio creating my own music and doing collaborations with other people.
This includes production, composition, and arrangements for sync (film/tv/gaming) as well as songwriters. I also teach private violin lessons, am engaged in ethnomusicology, and love to discover historical folk instruments (my latest obsession is the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle).
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Although my main instrument is the violin, I play at least ten other instruments. Piano and guitar being my other more comfortable instruments. Hardanger fiddle, banjo, mandolin, viola, percussion, organ, and others flood my house and probably take up the most space, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m also pretty good on a drum machine and programming analog synths!
Contact Info:
- Email: jess.Hanson.music@gmail.com
- Website: www.sound-postmedia.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jess.violin
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jes.violin
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jess_violin_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL1godtbau3VQSYZabb4m5Q?view_as=subscriber
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jess_violin
- Other: https://linktr.ee/jess.violin
