Monica Germino (born 1974) is an American and Dutch violinist. Germino spent her early years in Virginia, US. She is a graduate of

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Hu ...

. In 1993 she received a grant to study music in The Netherlands. Germino resides in The Netherlands. Monica Germino has performed at the

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featured ...

(UK),

Bang on a Can Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the cou ...

Marathon (NY),

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

(USF), at New York's

Austrian Cultural Forum An Austrian Cultural Forum is an agency of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, whose task consists of the cultural and scientific dialogue with artists and scientists of each particular host country. A Cultural forum focuse ...

and the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

. Germino collaborates with "electronic sound designer" Frank van der Weij. Germino and Van der Weij have commissioned new works for violinist and sound designer from

Julia Wolfe Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer and professor of music at New York University. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Wolfe's music has "long inhabited a terrain of its own, a place where classical forms are rech ...

Donnacha Dennehy Donnacha Dennehy (born 17 August 1970) is an Irish composer and leader of the Crash Ensemble specializing in contemporary classical music. According to musicologist Bob Gilmore, Dennehy's "high profile of his compositions internationally, togeth ...

, David Dramm, Arnoud Noordegraaf, Heiner Goebbels, Catherine Kontz, and Nick Williams. Germino commissioned a

Violectra Violectra is the name of a range of electric violins, violas and cellos designed, developed and hand made by David Bruce Johnson, a Canadian violin maker settled in Birmingham, England. These instruments are played by Nigel Kennedy, Richard Tognetti ...

(electric violin) in 2003. Among the pieces written for her on this instrument include composer Robert Zuidam's new Requiem (2013), Renske Vrolijk's 'Violectra Concerto' (2012), and David Dramm's 'Fuzzbox Logic' (2010). She also performs with her group ELECTRA and the band Electric Barbarian. Germino frequently collaborates with the Dutch composer

Louis Andriessen Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Although ...

and the singer

Cristina Zavalloni Cristina Zavalloni (born 1973 in Bologna, Italy) is a contemporary Italian singer and composer who focuses primarily on jazz and experimental (or avant-garde) music. Biography and career Born in Bologna, Zavalloni attended the Conservatorio di M ...

. In 2011, Andriessen composed a violin concerto for her, titled 'La Girò'. In 2002, Andriessen composed 'La Passione', a double concerto for Zavalloni and Germino. In 2009, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project brought out a CD of Andriessen's work, titled 'La Passione'. The title work and 'Passeggiata in Tram in America e Ritorno' are both settings of Dino Campana's poetry. Both works were composed for Zavalloni and Germino. Her performance of

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

's Six Melodies played an inspirational role in Andriessen's opera "Writing to Vermeer." Germino plays a Joannes Baptista Ceruti violin on permanent loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation. Germino also sings and plays simultaneously and she plays with the

curved bow The curved bow for string instruments enables string players to control the tension of the bow hair in order to play one, two, three and four strings simultaneously and to change easily among these possibilities. The high arch of the bow allows f ...

. She was married to composer

from 2012 until his death in 2021.

References

External links

*
Bio at Muziekencyclopedie (NL)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Germino, Monica Living people Dutch classical violinists American classical violinists 21st-century classical violinists 1974 births