Ferris High School violinist wins seat in Spokane Symphony

At just 13, Jessie Morozov, now 16, performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G with the Spokane Youth Symphony Orchestra, a piece usually reserved for advanced violinists.

From her first three-chord note, her confident, rich vibrato captivated the audience.

She’s only continued to make history since.

At 16 years old, Morozov, a junior at Ferris High School, made history Saturday evening with her official debut at Masterworks 7.

Born in Spokane in 2009, Morozov was raised on classical music and began piano lessons at 5. Despite her young age, she described it as “love at first sight.”

“Or first sound you could say,” she joked.

A year later that changed when she encountered local musician Tana Bachman-Bland busking in downtown Spokane – sparking a change of heart about her preferred instrument.

“She was playing some beautiful Bach piece and my mother asked her if she taught private violin lessons, and she happened to do so,” Morozov recalled. “And here we are.”

After years of private lessons with Bachman-Bland, she began working with Mateusz Wolski, concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony and her primary teacher when she was 10.

Wolski said from the moment she started playing her violin, he knew she had an old soul.

“One of the things that was very apparent from the first moment I heard Jessie was that there’s always a lot more to playing than just the notes,” Wolski said.

When teaching young students, he said he looks for their natural talent, particularly their ability to think analytically and solve problems – considering music is both an “art and science at the same time.”

“That combination of somebody that has a very sharp and analytical brain, combined with knowing what the music is about, that’s when you know that you have somebody very gifted in your care as a teacher,” Wolski said. “We will call that a gift, when somebody is wired in a way that they don’t only feel but they can channel it and that’s something that Jessie has. I couldn’t teach her that.

“That’s just Jessie.”

Wolski served not as concertmaster of the weekend’s performances, but as the soloist who played Max Bruch’s Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra in G Minor. Morozov said it was special that in her first concert with the symphony she could support Wolski “not as a student, but as a colleague.”

She called her first concert “surreal.”

“I’ve never played with a group this cohesive,” she said.

James Lowe, music director and conductor of the Spokane Symphony, first met Morozov years ago when she played for the Spokane Youth Symphony.

He was further struck by her talent when he later heard her playing a jazz piece in the Fox Theater lobby, reaffirming her natural talent.

“I was like, ‘Oh, wow, she can do everything,’” Lowe said.

“There are people for whom an instrument is a thing that they have taken on and learnt, and then there are people for whom it is absolutely part of their body, and you can see immediately whether this instrument, right, literally belongs to them. And that’s absolutely how I felt when I first saw Jessie play.”

On average, Morozov said she dedicates four hours a day to practicing but when it came to auditioning for the Spokane Symphony audition, she made sure she took extra time to be prepared.

“I limit myself to four hours physically, so as to not wear out my body, but I did add a considerable amount of time score-studying and listening in preparation for the audition,” Morozov said.

Lowe described the audition process as rigorous, with each audition conducted behind a screen. Candidates perform two concertos, and neither the panel of musicians nor Lowe knows their identities until all auditions are finished and final decisions are made.

“We have people coming from all over the country to audition for these jobs. So as much as I would love to say, ‘Oh, I like that, like that person will put them in,’ it doesn’t work like that. It’s extremely competitive,” Lowe said. “People come from all over the country to try and win jobs in this orchestra.”

Roxann Jacobson, now 75, also was 16 years old and a Shadle Park High School student when she first joined the Spokane Symphony in 1967. Jacobson moved away and was part of the San Francisco Symphony for 30 years before she returned to Spokane six years ago.

Reflecting on the competitiveness of the music world and auditions, she said her practice routine varied – some days reaching up to 10 hours, while on others, she wouldn’t practice at all.

“But I did it because I loved the music and I wanted to explore how far my talent could take me,” Jacobson said, who is now a substitute violist for the Spokane Symphony.

In reference to Morozov and seeing more talented young faces in the area, she said in her experience, Spokane has always been a place dedicated to encouraging young musicians. She said she wouldn’t have the career she has today without the mentors she had in the area.

“It’s hard, and I never thought I could ever be a professional musician when I was a kid,” Jacobson said.

“The teachers here in town were very encouraging, otherwise, I never would have done it. I really feel very grateful, because it changed my life entirely,” she said.

Similarly, Lowe said seeing someone so young be part of a professional symphony orchestra, while still in high school is extremely rare.

“It’s just great for me to look over and see her in total command of the music and really playing with full energy and passion,” Lowe said. “It makes me so happy to see younger generations coming in and knowing that this form will live on for many, many hundreds of years to come.”

Although nerves were high the day of auditions, Morozov said she felt a warm sense of camaraderie as she and the other musicians stayed around waiting to hear the results.

She said they all gathered around in a circle waiting. Once the results were in and she saw she would be the seventh chair in the second violin section, she couldn’t believe it.

“I grew up listening to the symphony, and it always felt like there was a little bit of a glass wall between myself and the symphony,” Morozov said.

“Knowing that I will be a part of this magic is such a blessing.”

Jonathan Brunt contributed to this report.