Sonya Monosoff


Sonya Monosoff is a violinist, a pioneer of the Baroque violin and one of the first American performers to use the Baroque violin in performance.

Biography

Sonya Monosoff studied the violin with Louis Persinger. She also studied chamber music with Felix Salmond and Hans Letz1. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, she joined the Quartet Galimir, refounded by Felix Galimir during his exile in America. In 1963 she founded and directed her own ensemble, first called the Baroque Players of New York, performing a range of works from Henry Purcell to Bulent Ariel.
In its infancy, Monosoff joined the ensemble New York Pro Musica under Noah Greenberg. She was the first modern performer to record the Rosary Sonatas and the 8 Sonatas of 1681 by Heinrich Biber. Her recording of the Bach sonatas with harpsichordist James Weaver won best recording of the year from Sound_&_Vision_.
From 1972 to 1997 she taught at Cornell University. In 1974 she formed the Trio Amade with fortepianist Malcolm Bilson and cellist John Hsu.
Sonya Monosoff has given recitals of chamber Music in the US, Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
After 1991 she taught violin and chamber music and gave concerts outside the United States, including the Czech Republic and where she was at the Prague Spring International Music Festival in 1993. She taught and gave master classes in many American and Canadian universities, and was invited to the Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv and Ferrara.

Partial discography

Monosoff's discography is currently lacking in CD format reissues, though LP and tape cassette formats are available at many university libraries. In the vein of Baroque performance, she recorded Biber, Corelli, Geminiani and JS Bach. With piano accompaniment, she made recordings of the violin sonatas of Mozart.
Cornell University also keeps archival recordings of Monosoff's many performances at Barnes Hall. For example, her performance on October 7, 1962 of J.S. Bach's trio sonatas, BWV 1038 and 1079, and her October 29, 1974 performance of Charles Ives' Dialogues for violin and piano are both available in Cornell's archives.

Articles

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