Abigail Wilensky performs with OSF, Jefferson Baroque Orchestra and Rogue Valley Chorale — and she’d love to be lead singer for a rock band
By Jim Flint
Violinist and violist Abigail Wilensky has built a musical life that is both deeply rooted and refreshingly expansive, shaped as much by family and tradition as by curiosity and change.
At 39, based in Williams, Oregon, she has become a familiar and versatile presence across Southern Oregon’s music scene, equally at home in a symphony orchestra, a chamber ensemble, a musical theater pit or an outdoor performance space. Her path, however, began long before she arrived in the Rogue Valley, with a childhood in which music was not an extracurricular option but the air she breathed.
Wilensky was born in Annapolis, Maryland, but her early years were defined by movement.
“My dad played trumpet in the Navy band,” she said. The family relocated frequently until she was 9, when they settled in Memphis, Tennessee. By then, music was already embedded in daily life.
Soundtrack of a childhood
“I grew up in a musical family,” she said. “Both of my parents are musicians, Dad on trumpet and Mom on violin. My sister is also musical — it was part of our family culture.”
Classical radio played constantly, concerts were routine and the sounds of violin lessons floated through the house.
For Wilensky, the question was never whether music would be serious. Her parents made sure that she had all the opportunities a young musician needs before studying music in college. Private lessons, youth symphony, summer camps and competitions were givens rather than aspirations. Equally important was what she witnessed growing up.
“I had a great model for the many ways you can make a living as a professional musician from my parents.”
Watching them balance ensemble work, teaching and freelancing made a musical career seem both viable and meaningful.
“Coming from a family of professional musicians is something I have appreciated more over the years,” she added, “especially when thinking about how I never had to convince them to believe in my dreams.”
Shaping the music
Her formal training reinforced that foundation. Studying at Vanderbilt University immersed her in an environment where intellect and artistry were inseparable.
“At Vanderbilt, there was an equal emphasis on academics and performance,” she said. “I believe that having a thorough knowledge of the history and theory of the music being performed greatly enhances musical interpretation.”
Graduate study at the Cleveland Institute of Music took her further. There she earned a master’s degree in both performance and Suzuki pedagogy.
“I was very inspired by the technical precision and artistry of my fellow students,” Wilensky said. She learned “almost by osmosis” through chamber groups and orchestral work.
A new chapter
In 2014, Wilensky made a decisive shift. After four years in Brooklyn, New York, she moved west.
“I moved to the Rogue Valley to be with my partner,” she said. “I was ready for a different lifestyle and environment.”
Southern Oregon offered not only that change but a community where her range of interests could flourish.
Locally, Wilensky is known for moving seamlessly between violin and viola, a duality she experiences both technically and emotionally.
“Violin will always be my first musical love,” she said, praising its role in carrying the musical narrative. She relishes the feeling of telling an emotional story without words. Viola, by contrast, offered perspective.
“When I began playing the viola in ensembles, I joked that I got a much-needed ego check,” she said. The instrument’s deep chocolatey tone invites a different physical and musical awareness: “You can actually feel the vibrations of the low notes throughout your body when playing it.”
That attentiveness carries into leadership roles. Wilensky has served as assistant concertmaster and principal second violin with the Rogue Valley Symphony, but she resists rigid hierarchies.
“My motto for any orchestra student I coach is ‘Lead from the back,’” she said. Recognition matters, but responsibility matters more. “In my mind, there is not much difference between being a section player and a leader. Wherever I am sitting, my eyes are up and my ears are open to see how my part fits in with the whole.”
Shared voices
Chamber music, too, is central to her artistic life.
“In chamber music, each person in the group has an equal voice in the collaboration,” she said. “I love this feeling of interconnectedness.”
Wilensky currently performs with a newly formed ensemble, Fellowship of the Strings, and speaks candidly about loss within the community, remembering violinist Kathleen Strahm, who died last summer at 39, as “my favorite violinist in the Rogue Valley to play chamber music with.”
Music’s diverse genres and wide range of sounds keep Wilensky engaged.
“I have always been fueled by change and variety,” she said, a philosophy reflected in collaborations with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Jefferson Baroque Orchestra, Rogue Valley Chorale and other groups.
With Jefferson Baroque Orchestra, with which she first performed in 2015, she values both the sound and the scale.
“I love the subtlety of expression found in Baroque music,” she said, noting the intimacy of smaller ensembles and historically informed performance.
Teaching is another pillar. Wilensky gives private lessons and coaches youth ensembles, working within the Suzuki Method. She describes it as “based on high parental involvement, step-by-step skill learning, keeping an active repertoire of music and always listening for the living soul of your tone.” She remains inspired by Suzuki’s vision of “peace through musical instruction.”
Onstage at OSF
Musical theater has brought yet another dimension. Having played in OSF productions including “Into the Woods,” “Hairspray,” and “Oklahoma!,” she is particularly attuned to the immediacy of the genre.
“I appreciate the real-time connection to the audience,” she said.
In OSF’s 2026 season, she will play fiddle onstage in “Come From Away,” a prospect she finds energizing. “I love working with the talented and heart-centered actors, directors and crew,” she said, predicting that the score will feel “like a traditional jam.”
Asked which style feels most like home, Wilensky resists a single answer. Recent experiences with a couple of nonclassical genres surprised her.
“Playing tango and Romani melodies seems to fit well with my natural musical style of expression — romance and drama!” she said. She invites audiences to catch her tango group, Luna Tango, this summer at OSF’s Green Show.
Away from the stage, Southern Oregon itself sustains her.
“I absolutely love living in the area’s beautiful and epic natural environment,” she said.
Looking ahead, she hopes to perform more chamber music in the Rogue Valley and encourages listeners to “keep your eyes on the Fellowship of the Strings.”
Then, with a grin implied, she adds another dream: “I also love to sing karaoke, and would absolutely love to be the lead singer of some kind of rock band.”
On the calendar
Meanwhile, several upcoming performances place Wilensky squarely in her classical wheelhouse:
Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, Chico and Redding, California: North State Symphony Masterworks 2, “Billy the Kid.”
Feb. 13, Paschal Winery, 1122 Suncrest Road, Talent: “Romantic Strings by Candlelight” with Michal Palzewicz and the Fellowship of Strings Quartet.
Feb. 27-March 1, Medford, Grants Pass and Ashland: Jefferson Baroque Orchestra presents “Café Bach.”
March 2, Grizzly Peak Winery, 1600 E. Nevada St., Ashland: Wilensky on violin, Palzewicz on cello, and Liane Alitowski on piano performing Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio and other works.
Jim Flint’s Curtain Call column publishes on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Email Jim at [email protected].
