Remembering Jan Sloman

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra remembers its friend and long-time Principal Associate Concertmaster Jan Mark Sloman. Sloman passed away on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. Our thoughts are with his wife Louise and his sons Jacob and Joseph.

Jan Mark Sloman joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1977. He served as Principal Associate Concertmaster until his retirement in 2015. Sloman was hired by former Music Director Eduardo Mata as the two men had worked together at the Phoenix Symphony.

Though he held a titled position with the DSO, was guest concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and performed with orchestras in Florence, Italy; Lugano and Geneva, Switzerland; and Melbourne, Australia, his enduring legacy is as an acclaimed and dedicated teacher. He maintained a large private studio, and taught both graduate and undergraduate students as an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University. In 2015, Sloman accepted an appointment to the violin faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), where he taught gifted students at the college, graduate, and pre-college levels. He split his time between Dallas and Cleveland. After having taught for seven summers at the Meadowmount School of Music, Sloman rejoined the faculty of the famed Heifetz International Music Institute in 2018.

The success of Sloman’s students at major conservatories and competitions has brought him increasing national recognition as a teacher and mentor of the next generation of string players. His students have been finalists and received awards in both national and international competitions including: American String Teachers Association (ASTA), Kingsville, Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Sphinx, Stulberg, and Andrea Postacchini (Italy). Additionally, his students have won top prizes in the Queen Elisabeth, Sendai, Naumburg, and Indianapolis Competitions. In 2004, Sloman received the Pre-Collegiate Teaching Achievement award given by the Texas Music Teachers Association, and in 2010 was named YoungArts Performing Arts Educator of the Year by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

Always strongly committed to educational opportunities for young musicians, Sloman founded a nonprofit organization, The Institute for Strings, to provide students in the Dallas area the opportunity to immerse themselves in an intensive music program that included solo and chamber music performance opportunities, as well as concerts as part of a self-conducted string orchestra. This unique summer program allowed 40 elite string players each session the ability to work with experienced professional musicians to hone their technical and interactive music skills over the course of 19 seasons.

Jan Mark Sloman worked with world-renowned conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, and Riccardo Chailly. He also mastered a wide range of repertoire as an orchestral soloist, performing works spanning Bach to Beethoven, and Tippett to Shostakovich. His recital and chamber music performances are highlighted by collaboration with artists such as Leonard Rose, Nobuko Imai, and Yo-Yo Ma. Mr. Sloman was a University Scholar at Princeton University and attended the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Jaime Laredo, Paul Makanowitzky, and Ivan Galamian. Other teachers include Joseph Silverstein. The global violin community mourns the loss of Jan, and the DSO remembers his life and legacy.