Synnestvedt joined the first violin section of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1986. Born in New York City, she grew up in Royal
Oak, Michigan; her father plays jazz trombone and her mother is a classical
pianist.
When Synnestvedt was 4 years old, she began violin studies
at the Detroit Community Music School. At 12, she won as first prize in a local
violin competition an appearance with the Detroit Symphony under Richard Hayman
in which she performed the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
That same year, she began studying with David Cerone of the Cleveland Institute
of Music.
In 1981, Synnestvedt entered the Curtis Institute of Music,
where she continued studies with Cerone and coaching in chamber music with
Felix Galimir, Karen Tuttle and Mischa Schneider. She participated in the 1983
Taos Chamber Music Festival, and was concertmaster of the Curtis Orchestra
under Max Rudolf, Leonard Bernstein and Sergiu Celibidache in the 1983/84
season. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1985. Since then, she has
participated in the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival, with the Concerto Soloists
of Philadelphia and on the CSO Chamber Music series.
Susan taught and performed at the Affinis Arts Seminar in
Japan. She has performed at the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston during
Northwestern University’s Winter Chamber Music Festival and with the Chicago
Chamber Musicians.
September 2012
