The musician, who had been suffering from behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, had been a tenured violinist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
New Zealand-born violinist Jennifer (‘Jenny’) Banks died on 30 June at the age of 42. She joined the violin section of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 2011 and performed with the ensemble until 2020, when she was diagnosed with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD).
Born in 1983 in Alexandra, NZ, Banks began learning the violin aged four, studying with Suzuki teacher Rosanne Forde. She joined the National Youth Orchestra aged 14, and studied for a master’s degree with Miriam Fried at Boston’s New England Conservatory.
In 2008 she joined the Tasman Quartet, which was appointed quartet-in-residence at Colorado University in Boulder and studied with the Takács Quartet. The ensemble won prizes at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition in Missouri and the inaugural Joan and Daniel Rutenberg Chamber Music Competition in Tampa, Florida.
Banks moved to Leipzig in 2012, initially playing with the Gewandhaus Orchestra on a fixed-term contract and gaining a tenured position in 2014. She remained in Germany until 2021 when her condition deteriorated and her family brought her back to New Zealand.
She spent a year at Dunedin Hospital, suffering from a broken leg, and then moved into the Cameron Cottage care facility. At the time of her death she was living in the Ranui Home, Alexandra.
She is survived by her eleven-year-old daughter, along with her parents and siblings.
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