[3] Jackiw started playing the violin at the age of four when he was given a small instrument that a child of family friends had outgrown.
After high school he attended Harvard University, starting as a psychology major, then switching to a concentration in music.
[5] Some of the great violinists who have especially influenced him are Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Arthur Grumiaux, and Nathan Milstein.
[7] Jackiw made his professional debut at the age of 12, when Boston Pops director Keith Lockhart invited him to perform on Opening Night in 1997, playing the Wieniawski Violin Concerto No.
The critically acclaimed performance landed Jackiw's picture on the front page of The Times, while The Strad reported that "a fourteen-year-old violinist took the London music world by storm.
[11] The 2002 substitution with the Baltimore Symphony, under Yuri Temirkanov, led to a continuing relationship with that orchestra, which included a tour of Japan in 2002 and a performance at the Winter Arts Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, a year later.
[18] Jackiw's violin was made by Vincenzo Rugeri of Cremona, Italy, in 1704 and his bow by François Nicolas Voirin of Paris, France in the mid-nineteenth century.
[18] While giving the UK premiere of Glière's violin concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Lighthouse in Poole on May 10, 2023, his bow broke.