Ross Monroe Winter
Violin
Phone: (804) 828-1166
Email: rwinter@vcu.edu
Violinist Ross Monroe Winter joined the violin faculty at VCU in 2012. A sought-after teacher, he has served on the violin and chamber music faculty at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Academy since 2007 and previously taught at The Chamber Music Workshop, New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School and Festival Youth Orchestra Summer Institute. He has also been an instructor of violin at Purchase College in New York, and maintains a private studio.
Winter returned to Hampton Roads as a member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in 2012; he has been a member of the Richmond Symphony since 2004 and a substitute with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he has been a member of or performed with ensembles such as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic, as well as the orchestras of Rhode Island, Albany, Roanoke, New Bedford and South Florida.
Devoted to chamber music, he is a founding member of the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, which is ensemble-in-residence at both WCVE Public Radio and the Lake George Music Festival. 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 has performed at the festivals of Aspen, Santo Domingo, Todi, Maastricht, Virginia Arts and Music at Penn’s Woods. This season he will give recital performances of Dvorak, Haydn and Messiaen, and be featured as a soloist in 10 performances of Stravinsky’s Duo Concertant with the Richmond Ballet.
Winter holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, Malcolm Lowe, and from the State University of New York Purchase Conservatory with Laurie Smukler. 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,” in which he also played the principal role of violinist. Other tastes of Hollywood include roles as a featured performer in “Sex and the City 2,” “Taylor Swift’s NBC Thanksgiving Special,” HBO’s series “Mildred Pierce” starring Kate Winslet and Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” He also spent time working on USA Network’s series, “Royal Pains” as an adviser, tutoring guest star Sami Gayle for the episode “A History of Violins.” (2011)
