Susan Synnestvedt joined the first violin section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1986. When Synnestvedt was four years old, she began violin studies at the Detroit Community Music School. At 12, she made her debut as soloist performing the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Detroit Symphony. That same year, she began studying with David Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Synnestvedt performed several more times as a soloist with the Detroit Symphony, as well as with other orchestras in Michigan and Canada.
In 1981, Synnestvedt entered the Curtis Institute of Music, where she continued studies with Cerone. She participated in the Meadowmount School for Strings, the Taos Chamber Music Festival and as a substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She was concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, and Max Rudolf in the 1983/84 season. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1985.
A passionate chamber musician, Synnestvedt has participated in the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival and on the CSO Chamber Music series. She has performed at the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston with the Chicago Chamber Musicians and during Northwestern University’s Winter Chamber Music Festival. For most of her life, she has performed as a violin-piano duo with her mother Jane Synnestvedt.
After many years of living in the suburbs, Susan enjoys living in downtown Chicago. She has two adult children.
