Press Biographies
Biography
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Updated: May 2022. Please do not use outdated versions.
Amsterdam-based, American/Dutch violinist Monica Germino is on the cutting edge of new music. Hailed by The Sunday Times (UK) as a ‘striking presence’ whose ‘virtuosity was exhilarating,’ she has premiered innovative works in such venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Alice Tully Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bimhuis, MASS MoCA, Le Poisson Rouge, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Other Minds, Holland Festival, MITO, Berliner Festspiele, International Bartók Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Queensland Biennial Festival, November Music, Grand Teton Music Festival, Bergen International Festival, Ultima Festival, and the Prague Spring International Festival. Highlights include solo appearances with London Sinfonietta, LA Philharmonic, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, MusikFabrik, Orkest de Volharding, Clazz Ensemble, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Ostravská banda, and Oslo Sinfonietta. She has recorded for Attacca Records, Basta Music, BMOP, Cantaloupe Music, and New Amsterdam Records, and with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble for Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, and Philips.
Germino is challenging the violin's conventional limits by creating innovative programs with a constantly expanding, eclectic repertoire. Many composers have written works for her, including Louis Andriessen, Nicholas Brown, Donnacha Dennehy, David Dramm, Heiner Goebbels, Michael Gordon, Annie Gosfield, Huba de Graaff, Molly Joyce, Catherine Kontz, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Joanne Metcalf, Arnoud Noordegraaf, Rafael Reina, Jacob TV, Renske Vrolijk, Marcel Wierckx, Nick Williams, Ian Wilson, Julia Wolfe, and Robert Zuidam. She has also worked with composers Michel van der Aa, Martin Bresnick, John Cage, Alvin Curran, Michael Daugherty, György Ligeti, and Christian Wolff. Germino often sings and plays simultaneously, and has commissioned a significant repertoire for singing violinists.
A versatile artist, Germino has broken barriers in exciting collaborations with the dance companies NDT, Krisztina de Châtel, Club Guy & Roni, and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam; choreographers Nanine Linning and Dylan Newcomb; film director Hal Hartley, singer Cristina Zavalloni, pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama, the band Electric Barbarian, and theatre companies ZT Hollandia and Nieuw West. She co-founded the international ensemble ELECTRA and now serves as its artistic advisor. Together with sound designer Frank van der Weij, she has revealed new possibilities for the solo violin and presented multimedia programs worldwide. Awarded numerous research and performance grants from the Performing Arts Foundation in the Netherlands, the duo worked closely with adventurous composers, often using amplification, effects, and intense distortion to alter, fracture, and multiply the voice of the violin. Composers have always played an active role in Germino’s creative path. Her latest solo program, MUTED, a collective composition by Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Louis Andriessen features violin, voice, frame violins, whisperviolin, hundreds of mutes, and light design.
Germino has led master classes and introduced new music in Vietnam, Canada, Australia, the United States, and throughout Europe. She was an artist-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan, Boston Conservatory, Illinois Wesleyan University, and the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, and has curated concerts at the Cornish College of the Arts, Birmingham Conservatoire, and the Robert Helps Festival, among others. Germino was appointed visiting professor of violin at the University of South Florida’s School of Music in 2009-2010 and returned for an extended residency in 2017.
Monica Germino holds diplomas with honors from New England Conservatory and Yale University; her principal teachers were James Buswell, Syoko Aki, and the Tokyo String Quartet. She won the Charles Ives Scholarship, Yale Alumni Association Prize, and a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for study with Vera Beths at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. She plays a Joannes Baptista Ceruti violin, on permanent loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation, along with a custom-made Violectra and an assortment of unusual violins.
website: www.monicagermino.com
Updated: May 2022. Please do not use outdated versions.
Short biography
Amsterdam-based, American/Dutch violinist Monica Germino is on the cutting edge of new music. Hailed by The Sunday Times (UK) as a ‘striking presence’ whose ‘virtuosity was exhilarating,' she has commissioned and premiered innovative works in leading venues and festivals worldwide. Highlights include solo appearances with London Sinfonietta, LA Philharmonic, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, MusikFabrik, and Oslo Sinfonietta in such venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Mass MoCA, Le Poisson Rouge, Holland Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Berliner Festspiele, and Lincoln Center. Germino has recorded for Attacca Records, Basta Music, BMOP, Cantaloupe Music, New Amsterdam Records, and with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble for Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, and Philips.
Germino is challenging the violin's conventional limits by creating innovative programs with a constantly expanding, eclectic repertoire. Many composers have written works for her, including Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, David Dramm, Heiner Goebbels, Michael Gordon, Annie Gosfield, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Jacob TV, Julia Wolfe, and Robert Zuidam. She has also worked with composers Michel van der Aa, Martin Bresnick, John Cage, Alvin Curran, Michael Daugherty, György Ligeti, and Christian Wolff. Germino often sings and plays simultaneously, and has commissioned a significant repertoire for singing violinists.
A versatile artist, Germino has performed with Europe’s leading dance and theatre companies, and smashed barriers in exciting collaborations with choreographer Nanine Linning, singer Cristina Zavalloni, pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama, Club Guy & Roni, and many others. She co-founded the international ensemble ELECTRA and now serves as its artistic advisor. Together with sound designer Frank van der Weij, she has revealed new possibilities for the solo violin and presented multimedia programs worldwide. The duo worked closely with adventurous composers, often using amplification, effects, and intense distortion to alter, fracture, and multiply the voice of the violin. Composers have always played an active role in Ms. Germino’s creative path. Her latest solo program, MUTED, a collective composition by Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Louis Andriessen features violin, voice, frame violins, whisperviolin, hundreds of mutes, and light design.
Monica Germino holds diplomas with honors from New England Conservatory and Yale University; her principal teachers were James Buswell, Syoko Aki, and the Tokyo String Quartet. She won the Charles Ives Scholarship, Yale Alumni Association Prize, and a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for study with Vera Beths at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. She plays a Joannes Baptista Ceruti violin, on permanent loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation, along with a custom-made Violectra and an assortment of unusual violins.
website: www.monicagermino.com
Updated: May 2022. Please do not use outdated versions.
Tiny biography
Amsterdam-based, American/Dutch violinist Monica Germino is on the cutting edge of new music. Hailed by The Sunday Times (UK) as a ‘striking presence’ whose ‘virtuosity was exhilarating,’ she has collaborated with such composers as Louis Andriessen, John Cage, Heiner Goebbels, Michael Gordon, David Lang, György Ligeti, and Julia Wolfe. Together with sound designer Frank van der Weij, she has revealed new possibilities for the solo violin and presented multimedia programs worldwide. Her performances often feature singing and playing simultaneously. She co-founded the international ensemble ELECTRA and now serves as its artistic advisor. MUTED, her latest solo program, is a collective work for violin, voice, whisperviolin, frame violins, a multitude of mutes, and light design. Germino plays a Joannes Baptista Ceruti violin, on permanent loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation, along with a custom-made Violectra and an assortment of unusual violins.
website: www.monicagermino.com
Press quotes: click for more press information
The New York Times (USA):
Monica Germino Puts Electronics and Violin Together, and Myriad Sounds Ensue - NYTimes
- by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
'…a gloriously free and wild fiddle tantrum in which virtuosity and mischief-making went hand in hand.'
The Strad Magazine
Sophistication and showmanship - by Bruce Hodges
"…Monica Germino gave a veritable masterclass on the use of violin and electronics, packed with sophistication and showmanship."
"a violinist who leaves no elements to chance"
The Sunday Times (UK):
‘Her virtuosity was exhilarating’
‘...American-born, Netherlands-based, she is a striking presence whose recital was an integrated mixed-media event.’
The Observer (UK):
‘...the dazzling violinist Monica Germino’
Los Angeles Times (USA):
‘...remarkable soloist...’
‘('La Girò' is) like a jazzy and minimalist take on a Baroque violin concerto...Germino, who is a rapt soloist, is also wired with a mike. She speaks as she plays…[her] dramatic as well as musical talents clearly motivated Andriessen’s shockingly fanciful score, which received [a] riveting U.S. premiere Tuesday at a Green Umbrella concert by the L.A. Phil New Music Group.’ -by Mark Swed
The Daily Telegraph (UK):
‘Monica Germino, a vividly personable player on the electric and "normal" violin, works with a sound engineer to transform her violin at one moment into a colossally deep double bass, the next into a wailing electric guitar... a tour-de-force of slowly rising intensity [Industry, by Michael Gordon].’
Strings Magazine (USA):
"Whether she was playing the violin, electric violin, adapted violin, whispering, talking, or singing, Germino conveyed her passion with tour de force virtuosity and burning vulnerability."
The New York Times (USA):
'…the American-Dutch violinist Monica Germino presented the fruits of a very different partnership: violin and electronics. Together with her regular collaborator, the electronic sound designer Frank van der Weij, she performed a half-dozen new works by American and European composers in which Mr. van der Weij’s digital wizardry amplified, distorted, fragmented and multiplied the voice of the solo violin. Part of the fun lay in the discovery of the resulting cool and unusual sounds, which ranged from Jimi Hendrix to radio-jamming signals and fire engine sirens. But Ms. Germino’s interest clearly lies in the dramatic possibilities of a partnership that is ultimately focused on empowering the violinist.'
'...tapped, stomped, played, hummed and sang…an arresting duality of sound and image...psychologically dark and unsettling...earthy and sharp pizzicati...snapping brain synapses…digitally processed harmonics...sonic mayhem...astonishingly rich...virtuosic violin line...rock ’n’ roll moment...binary fire-engine siren...constantly changing sonic environment...juicy double-stopped glissandi...electronic fireworks...affecting vulnerability...'
Feast of Music, Peter Matthews (USA):
‘an extraordinary musician’
‘…it was when her voice kicked in on top that her astonishing range was revealed’
The New York Times (USA):
about ELECTRA’s Lincoln Center debut:
‘viscerally thrilling...with an explosive energy’
Contact and Booking information:
For Monica Germino: monicagermino[at]icloud.com
www.monicagermino.com
Representation
Mary G. Madigan at MADIGAN NEW MUSIC
mary[at]madigannewmusic.com
www.madigannewmusic.com
