"Germino has spent her time introducing students to new contemporary music composers and techniques while challenging them every step of the way. Working with a studio already well-versed in contemporary music, she pushed the students further into the realm of new music by assigning works by composers such as Donnacha Dennehy, Annie Gosfield, Louis Andriessen, Vanessa Lann, and Philip Glass.
In early November, she coordinated and moderated a special violin studio class in Barness Hall with live sound and technical support from the USF Composition department. All 18 members of the violin studio introduced their pieces – which ranged from Ives and Boulanger to new music spanning the 1980s to the present – before performing them live with any complementary soundtracks and amplification.
Students saw firsthand what it is like to engage with music in an intensive setting with the guidance of a challenging, supportive, and experienced musician. Some even sang while playing violin, a method of performance that has come to characterize Germino's own professional work.
"What I love about her is she is bringing it right to the students," said Scott Kluksdahl, professor of cello and chamber music. His students often collaborate with the violin studio for chamber music pieces. He calls the recent studio class "a real glimpse into how an artist engages in the creative process ... Everybody had to go outside their comfort zone and do something that was in the realm of the unknown."
Germino's presence this semester has advanced the musicianship of violin students at USF and will leave a lasting impression on both student performers and composers alike. "To have an established new music performer who's not only passionate but also really good and well-recognized is really useful," said [Logan] Barrett [a third-year music composition student]. "It's reassuring and directly helps us because it gets the violinists more into what we do."