Monica Minden

Monica played violin at New York's High School of Music and Art, then went to MIT and UCLA and followed a research engineering career in Malibu, CA. She played actively at first, then less and less as work and parenting and senior care took over. For 5 years she quit violin entirely. Suddenly it all stopped: she retired; the home was empty-nested; and the older generation passed away. It took a couple of years to find her way back to the violin.

Now violin is a full time vocation and, even with the pandemic, she has played actively in chamber music and chamber music workshops. She is on the board of the Chamber Music Society of Santa Barbara and helps coordinate string groupings and assignments for the twice-yearly workshops. It is a delight that orchestras and musical theater are back. She currently plays in the Santa Monica Symphony, Vicente Chamber orchestra, Actors Repertory Theater of Simi, and is concertmaster of the Palisades Symphony Orchestra.