Ross Monroe Winter, violin
Violinist Ross Monroe Winter's career spans four continents and multiple genres as soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, as well as work in film and television.
In the current and recent seasons, highlights of appearances as soloist-with-orchestra include performances with Brazil's Orquestra Sinfônica da Universidade de Caxias do Sul and the Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra in John Corigliano's The Red Violin “Chaconne”, and with China's Sichuan Conservatory Symphony Orchestra in the Asian premiere of Daron Hagen's violin concerto "Songbook". Other recent solo appearances have been with the Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra in separate duo concertos with Juilliard violin professor Laurie Smukler (Mozart's Concertone) and UNI's Julia Bullard (Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante); with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra (Vivaldi and Max Reger's Four Seasons); and with the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra in Anna Clyne's "Prince of Clouds": a concerto for two violins performed with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond, and conductor Laura Jackson.
Currently a member of the Richmond Symphony (VA), the IRIS Orchestra (TN), and principal second violin of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, Dr. Winter also served for two seasons as interim Associate Concertmaster of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (IA/IL). He has previously been a member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Boston Philharmonic, and has performed with the National (Washington, DC), Milwaukee, Baltimore, Alabama, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras. Frequently performing as a guest concertmaster and principal, he has recurringly filled into that role recently with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Dubuque Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, and La Crosse Symphony orchestras.
A devoted teacher, Dr. Winter joins the faculty at the University of Central Florida School of Performing Arts in Orlando as a professor of violin in August of 2019. During the summers, he teaches violin and chamber music at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Academy where he has also served as Academy Director. He is also on the violin and chamber music faculty at The Orchestra Project: a festival jointly produced by VCU and the Richmond Symphony in Virginia.
Previously he has been on the string faculties of the University of Northern Iowa, George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Mary Washington, University of Richmond, and New England Conservatory Preparatory School and “Festival Youth Orchestra” Summer Institute. He has given masterclasses at the University of North Texas, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Penn State University, Sichuan Conservatory of Music, The Boston Conservatory, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Syracuse University, James Madison University, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and many others.
Immersed in chamber music, he is frequently heard in recital, as a guest with numerous ensembles, and in the summers as a member of the Wintergreen Chamber Players. He was a founding member (and on the Board of Directors) of the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, which has been ensemble-in-residence at WCVE Public Radio and the Lake George Music Festival. With the UNI Faculty Septet, he performed a number of works including a fully-staged centennial production of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat broadcast on NPR and Wynton Marsalis’s The Devil’s Tale. Recent collaborations of note include concerts with violists Victoria Chiang and Ralph Fielding, cellists Michael Mermagen and Hannah Holman, and violinists David Perry and Elisabeth Adkins, as well as with principal musicians from major American symphony orchestras. He has performed at the festivals of Aspen, Santo Domingo, Todi, Maastricht, Virginia Arts, and Music at Penn's Woods.
Dr. Winter holds a BM from the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, and an MM from the State University of New York Purchase College-Conservatory of Music with Laurie Smukler as a graduate assistant. He completed his doctoral studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC with Jody Gatwood. Other principal teachers include Sylvia Rosenberg, Kurt Sassmannshaus, and Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet.
His most notable student has been Robert Downey, Jr. for the Warner Bros. film Sherlock Holmes (2009) while also playing the principal role of Violinist. Other tastes of Hollywood include roles as a featured performer in Sex and the City 2 (2010), Taylor Swift's NBC Thanksgiving Special (2010), HBO's series Mildred Pierce (2011) starring Kate Winslet, the BET Honors with Aretha Franklin (2014), and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012). He also spent time working on the USA Network series Royal Pains as an advisor and tutoring guest star Sami Gayle for the episode “A History of Violins” (2011). Recordings for Albany Records, Sono Luminus, AAM Recordings, and Naxos.
In another life, Dr. Winter would have become an astrophysicist, as he is fascinated with everything outer space-related. Black holes, quantum physics, neutrino stars, dark matter/energy, are some of the most fascinating topics in the universe!
Website: www.rmwstudio.com
