Featuring soloist Monona Suzuki, winner of the 2018 Sinfonia Young Artist Competition.

Monona Suzuki, age 15 is a remarkable young musician.  A freshman at Madison West High School in Madison, Wisconsin, and has been a student of Eugene Purdue at the Buddy Conservatory of Music for the past seven years. Previously she studied with Maria Rosa Germain of Suzuki Strings of Madison and additional summer studies with Ms. Rie Saito of Tokyo, Japan. Monona’s notable concerto appearances include: in 2016, Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy with the Madison Symphony and the Philharmonia Orchestra of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and in 2017, Paganini’s La Campanella with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Recently, she soloed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as a finalist and winner of the 2018 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Young Artists/Stars of Tomorrow competition. Additional accomplishments include highly commended in the 2018 Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition, laureate in the 2017 American Music Institute Violin Competition and Third Prize in the Junior Classical Music Competition in Japan, for which she had the honor of performing at Suntory Hall, Tokyo in December 2017. In her spare time, Monona enjoys teaching and teasing siblings, and trying new cooking recipes from cookbooks.