Violinist Jennifer Leshnower, who joined the Cassatt String Quartet in 1994 as second violinist, has performed in North and Central America, Europe, and Asia. She is also the founding director of Cassatt in the Basin!, an educational chamber music residency established in 2005 in her hometown of Odessa, Texas.

A former member of the Thouvenel String Quartet, Ms. Leshnower has concertized with members of the Cleveland, Tokyo, Vermeer, Orion and Amadeus Quartets, pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Ursula Oppens and Lydia Artymiw, flutist Ransom Wilson and cellist Colin Carr among others. She has championed new music, having collaborated with leading 21st-century composers including John Corigliano, Kaija Saariaho, Joan Tower, Augusta Read Thomas, Yehudi Wyner and Peter Schikele.

Ms. Leshnower coaches chamber music worldwide including masterclasses in Italy's Orvieto Musica, Mexico's San Miguel Chamber Music Festival, Ireland’s Trinity College and Royal Irish Academy of Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Syracuse University, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, she had the opportunity to perform at the Library of Congress on the Library's "Ward" Stradivari (1700).

Leshnower trained at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with Sergiu Luca, and the Peabody Conservatory with Sylvia Rosenberg. She participated in the Meadowmount and Aspen Music Festivals, the National Repertory Orchestra having coached with members of the Guarneri, Tokyo and Juilliard Quartets.

Ms. Leshnower performs on a 1655 Jacobus Stainer violin.