Jan M. Sloman ’71

Our class lost a most talented and accomplished musician when Jan Sloman died on September 27, 2022.  Jan came to Princeton from the Birch Wathen School and Juilliard Prep in Manhattan as an elite violinist, performing as a soloist starting in freshman year.  He studied as a University scholar and performed frequently with the University orchestra before leaving Princeton for the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.  Jan moved to a titled position (Principal Associate Concertmaster) with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1977 and remained there until 2015.  He was a concertmaster of the Maggio Musicale in Florence, Italy, for three years while also playing in Dallas and was the Principal Associate Concertmaster and Concertmaster of the Dallas Pops for many years. He was also guest concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and performed with orchestras in Florence, Italy; Lugano and Geneva, Switzerland; and Melbourne, Australia.  Yet Jan’s enduring legacy is as an acclaimed and dedicated teacher, helping his students grow as musicians and as human beings. Students came to see him long after leaving his studio, letting him know that “everything in life I learned about solving problems I learned from you.” He taught both graduate and undergraduate students at Southern Methodist University and, starting in 2015, students at the college, graduate, and pre-college levels at the Cleveland Institute of Music, splitting his time between Dallas and Cleveland. Jan was very proud of the chamber music institute in Dallas he founded, The Institute for Strings (TIFS), which ran for nineteen years and provided students in the Dallas area the opportunity to immerse themselves in an intensive music program.  While teaching at The Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, New York, and the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, Virginia, Jan attracted students from all over the United States and Canada as well as from Europe and Asia.  Many of them asked to study with him after they had finished their summer studies, and so long before internet Zoom lessons became popular, Jan started teaching over Skype throughout the world. Students at The Cleveland Institute of Music organized a memorial concert in his honor.

Jan had just finished writing a book explaining how he developed so many first-class violinists when he entered the hospital for last three months of his life. With the help of several former students and family members, the book was polished and is now with an agent in New York, awaiting publication. Jan is survived by his wife, Louise, and two sons, Jacob and Joseph. To his family, colleagues and many admirers, the Class extends its deep sympathies.