Jenny was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend — and also a beautiful violinist.
She was born on December 16, 1983, to Judy and Tony Banks, at Dunstan Hospital. She attended Alexandra Primary School and then Dunstan High School.
When Jenny was 4, she began learning Suzuki method violin with the late Rosanne Forde, who had just moved to the area.
Rosanne had a strong belief that no child was more or less musically talented than any other child, but having sat in on a few of the lessons, there were definitely some who picked things up faster than others.
At 14, Jenny was chosen for the National Youth Orchestra and, a few years later, the New Zealand Youth Choir, which took her to countries including Russia, Slovenia and Hungary.
In 2000, her final year at school, Jenny was also one of the first recipients of the Otago Daily Times ’ Class Act award for excellence.
After leaving school, Jenny studied and gained an honours degree in performance music at the University of Otago, completing her final year at Canada’s University of Toronto.
At 22, she was awarded a $US10,000 scholarship to complete her master’s degree from New England Conservatory in Boston with acclaimed teacher Miriam Fried.
The opportunity to study in Boston was like a dream come true for Jenny, she said at the time.
‘‘I never thought I’d end up with the opportunity to go to a place like Boston’s NEC,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s one of the best music schools in the world.’’
The Alexandra community rallied to help her raise another $US29,000, which included a $NZ20,000 grant from Central Lakes Trust.
Dad said at the time it felt like the Alexandra community had come together to help get her there.
‘‘It really felt like she had the whole town behind her,’’ he said.
After completing her master’s, Jenny got her first professional position with the Tasman String Quartet at the end of 2008, at the University of Colorado.
In 2013, Jenny began playing with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany, and in 2014, she gained a much-coveted tenured position.
At the time she said: ‘‘There’s a real sense of pride in this orchestra, about its history and where it’s come from.’’
It was there she met Lukas Olszewski, and in April 2015 baby Ella came along.
But when Ella was about 4, Jenny started behaving erratically, and her friends noticed a big change in her behaviour.
When the Covid lockdown came to Germany in early 2020, Jenny didn’t understand.
‘‘This intelligent, interested woman who was normally informed about everything that happened in Europe, suddenly had no idea,’’ one friend in Germany said.
Her friends took her to numerous doctors, before she was eventually diagnosed with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD). The life expectancy is two to 10 years.
The diagnosis was a devastating shock for everyone.
Jenny was brought home from Germany during the height of strict Covid regulations, after she stopped using her phone and communication with her became impossible.
Shortly after she arrived home she broke her leg badly.
This was the beginning of a whole year in Ward 6C of Dunedin Hospital, before an appropriate place was found in Cameron Cottage — a newly established care facility in Dunedin for younger people.
She remained there until earlier this year, when the level of care she required meant she was moved to Ranui Home in Alexandra.
Towards the end of June, Jenny developed pneumonia; she died peacefully, surrounded by her family, on June 30.
