Jennifer Leshnower, second violinist of the Cassatt Quartet, has performed across North and Central America, Europe, and Asia. She is the founder and director of Cassatt in the Basin — a chamber music residency established in 2005 in West Texas, where Leshnower grew up — which presents educational events across the Permian Basin multiple times annually.

As a chamber musician, Leshnower has played 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. She has championed new music, including collaborations with leading 21st-century composers including John Corigliano, Kaija Saariaho, Joan Tower, Augusta Read Thomas, Yehudi Wyner and Peter Schickele. Leshnower is a former member of the Thouvenel String Quartet and the Midland-Odessa Symphony, and joined the Cassatt Quartet in 1994. In 2006, she had the opportunity to perform with the CSQ at the Library of Congress on the Library's "Ward" Stradivari.

Leshnower’s chamber music teaching has brought her to young musicians worldwide, including in 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.

Leshnower studied at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with Sergiu Luca, and at 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. Leshnower performs on a rare 1655 Jacobus Stainer violin.