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Monica Germino is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Violinist Monica Germino (USA/The Netherlands) has premiered numerous works throughout the world. Highlights include appearances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Holland Festival, Pontino Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Queensland Biennial Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Bergen International Festival, Ultima Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Germino performs often as a soloist and chamber musician with contemporary ensembles such as the Schönberg Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, Orkest de Volharding, MusikFabrik, Oslo Sinfonietta, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Remix Ensemble, and London Sinfonietta.
In 1999, Germino joined forces in founding ELECTRA, an Amsterdam-based, four-member modern music ensemble. A devoted advocate of contemporary music, she has worked with a multitude of composers, including Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, John Cage, Michael Gordon, György Ligeti, and Christian Wolff. Among the many new pieces written for her are a solo violin piece and a double concerto by Louis Andriessen, a work for violin and sampler by Heiner Goebbels, and a large-scale composition for electric violin and soundtrack by Jacob ter Veldhuis. As a soloist, Germino habitually performs new works from memory. She has recorded for Basta, BMOP, and Attacca.
Interdisciplinary projects include collaborations with choreographers Nanine Linning, Dylan Newcomb, and Betsy Torenbos, the dance companies NDT, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and Krisztina de Châtel, film director Hal Hartley, singer Cristina Zavalloni, and theater companies ZT Hollandia and Nieuw West. Germino has led master classes and introduced new music in Vietnam, Canada, the United States, and throughout Europe, and has been an artist-in-residence at several institutions of higher learning, including the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. She holds diplomas with honors from New England Conservatory and Yale University, where she received the Charles Ives Scholarship and the Yale Alumni Association Prize. Her principal teachers were Syoko Aki, James Buswell, and the Tokyo String Quartet. After winning a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant, she studied with Vera Beths at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and is now based in Amsterdam.
Monica Germino is on the cutting edge of new music. Since 2003, when she commissioned a custom-made 'Violectra,' she has been exploring the unlimited possibilities for the electric violin. Closely collaborating with composers on new works for the 'Violectra' and for her acoustic violin, she has created innovative programs with a constantly expanding, diverse repertoire. Germino plays a Joannes Baptista Ceruti violin from Cremona, anno 1802, on permanent loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation.
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