Editor’s note: This story is part of Meet a UChicagoan, a regular series focusing on the people who make UChicago a distinct intellectual community. Read about the others here.
As enthusiastic festival-goers filled Grant Park, Molly Long and Sophia Janevic stood backstage at Lollapalooza in an unexpected uniform: sweatpants and bathrobes.
Across the way, they'd watched rapper A$AP Rocky run his sound check. Now, violins in hand, they prepared to walk onstage before 10,000 festival-goers—a far cry from the quiet concert halls where they'd spent most of their classical training.
"Waiting for the song that we were featured on and going out onto stage was so out of my comfort zone, and such a cool opportunity, that I didn't feel very nervous," Long recalled. "I just felt excited to be on this big stage and see all the kids moshing in the front."
The path to this moment had begun with an email. Long, who then oversaw the Summer Lab program at UChicago's Data Science Institute, and Janevic, a marketing professional at the University's Music Department, had responded to a call for musicians that had reached Jennifer Woodrum, the department’s artistic operations manager.
One thing led to another, and they found themselves performing in a string quartet at Lollapalooza with ian, an American rapper who has recently gone viral with his blend of trap, hip-hop and hyperpop. On top of it all, ian's team chose a playful wardrobe inversion—the rapper in a suit, and the classically trained musicians in loungewear.
“It was so surreal,” said Janevic. “I've been going to festivals and concerts for nine years now, so to be on the other side of that was a really great, crazy perspective.”
Pushing the violin's boundaries
Though a classically trained violinist since childhood, Janevic had spent nine years attending festivals like Pitchfork and Lollapalooza, drawn to indie and pop performances that stretched far beyond her classical roots. Now, stepping onto the stage rather than standing in the crowd, she relished how different the environment felt from the concert halls she knew.
“In a classical environment, the audience is dead silent the whole time. But in this festival environment, having an immediate reaction from the people listening to you was different and very cool,” she said. “You feel much more connected with the audience.”
Working at the University's music department and supporting its concert series has also fueled her curiosity about the violin's possibilities beyond classical repertoire.
From the Tomeka Reid Stringtet's blend of jazz and classical elements to the Turtle Island Quartet's rock and blues influences, she's heard the violin pushed beyond traditional limits. She even witnessed violinist Tom Chiu play violin music that generated AI imagery on a 3D-projected film setup, co-designed by UChicago media professor Marc Downie.
“I've been exposed to all these different ways that the violin has been used—and it has made me want to pursue a wider variety in my own playing in terms of genre and style,” said Janevic.
With the fall concert season at hand at UChicago, she's excited about multi-genre programming that ranges from Raven Chacon's "American Ledger No. 3"—a choral piece by the Pulitzer-winning Diné composer—to classical performances by the Brentano Quartet and soprano Julia Bullock.
In her marketing role, Janevic also thinks hard about the intersections between social media and music—which made her experience with ian particularly instructive. The rapper had become a viral sensation by responding to early criticism with self-deprecating humor instead of defensiveness.
"He knows how to make fun of himself and be in on the joke with everyone else,” Janevic said. “To share the stage with someone who has really figured out the social media game was valuable for me as someone who works a lot in that area."
Finding balance through music
Janevic and Long's path to that Lollapalooza stage began at age 17, when they met at Interlochen Arts Camp in northern Michigan. They kept in touch loosely over the years, reconnecting when they discovered they were both working at UChicago. The coincidence prompted them to form a string quartet together.
For a year and a half, the quartet played local gigs around the city: house shows, performances at the Fine Arts Building downtown and concerts at Montgomery Place, a retirement home in Hyde Park.
They worked through repertoire ranging from Piazzolla to Bartók, Prokofiev to Schubert. Through different iterations of the group, Janevic and Long remained constants—the violinists anchoring an ensemble that brought classical music into community spaces.
For Long, violin has been a through-line across life and career phases: from childhood to a career as a wildlife ecologist in Idaho and through their UChicago experience. They recently transitioned from research program administrator at the Data Science Institute to master's student in computational analysis and public policy at the UChicago Harris School of Public Policy.
The discipline and patience violin requires, they say, has informed every stage of work and life.
“Violin is super hard. You have to put in a lot of time and spend a lot of time being frustrated,” they said. “And I think that if you want to be good at anything, that’s true.”
But learning to channel that discipline without being consumed by perfectionism has proven equally valuable—both in managing research programs and now as a graduate student navigating coursework alongside orchestra rehearsals.
“For a while, violin was emotionally challenging for me because it felt so high stakes. But now as an adult, playing music in these different settings, I’ve really been able to reconnect with the joys, pleasures and hard work of playing—without the same kind of emotional baggage,” said Long. “That’s an approach I really want to take to Harris.”
In their graduate work, Long hopes to bring a data-driven lens to their research, with urban policy among their key interests.
"I'm really interested in things that help make poor people less poor, and help our cities and communities be richer, better places to live," they said. They’re especially focused on Chicago—including transit, education and environmental challenges in the city.
As a Harris student, Long has found the program's culture reinforces the healthier relationship with achievement they've cultivated through music. Orientation activities stressed learning over perfect grades, an ethos that resonates with how they've learned to balance discipline with joy.
"If I can bring that discipline and hard work that I honed in my early years as a violinist, but enjoy collaboration and community, I can live my life in a much happier way," they said. "And I think then I'll be set up for success."
Choosing curiosity
At UChicago, both musicians have found space for multifaceted lives—where a data scientist can also play in string ensembles, an administrator can become a student, and classical training can lead to multi-genre explorations. The Lollapalooza performance was an unexpected highlight, but it reflects something both have learned through years of practice: curiosity, drive and an openness to new forms of expression.
“The important part is taking responsibility for your experience, taking initiative to learn as much as you can, and having that self-discipline to make it happen,” said Long. “Because there are so many interesting things out there to do.”
Click here to attend upcoming concerts from the University’s concert series, and here to learn more about the UChicago Data Science Institute.
