Monica Germino

Who is Monica Germino?

Monica Germino is an American and Dutch violinist.

Germino spent her early years in Virginia, USA. She is a graduate of Yale and the New England Conservatory. In 1993 she received a grant to study music in The Netherlands.

Germino collaborates with "electronic sound designer" Frank van der Weij. She has performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival,Bang on a Can Marathon,University of South Florida, at New York's Austrian Cultural Forum and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Germino and Van der Weij have commissioned new works for violinist and sound designer from Julia Wolfe,Donnacha Dennehy, David Dramm, Arnoud Noordegraaf, Heiner Goebbels, Catherine Kontz, and Nick Williams. Germino also sings and plays simultaneously.

Germino commissioned a Violectra in 2003. She also performs with her group ELECTRA and the band Electric Barbarian. Among the pieces written for her on this instrument include composer Robert Zuidam's new Requiem, Renske Vrolijk's 'Violectra Concerto', and David Dramm's 'Fuzzbox Logic'.

Germino frequently collaborates with the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen and the singer Cristina Zavalloni. 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's Six Melodies played an inspirational role in Andriessen's opera "Writing to Vermeer."