She grew up on a homestead in Northern California in a family of folk musicians, studied at Oberlin Conservatory, graduated with a degree in English literature from UC Berklee, and has been performing since she was a teenager. She has taken the #1 Rising Star Violinist title in the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and has been listed as one of their Top Ten Overall Violinists for a decade. She has garnered numerous high-profile arranging credits with Lucinda Williams, Bono, Lou Reed, Metallica and Sean Lennon, and has toured and recorded with Bill Frisell, Bruce Cockburn, Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, Nels Cline, Vinicius Cantuaria, Rodney Crowell, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Mark Ribot. She has seven CDs of original music to date; Mischief & Mayhem, Jenny Scheinman, Crossing The Field, 12 Songs, Shalagaster, The Rabbi’s Lover and Live At Yoshi’s.