459 12th Street, 2-A
Brooklyn,
NY 11215
718.499.7815
beth@bethlevinpiano.com
myspace profile
wikipedia entry
Leni Bogat Artists
Scott Wheeler
16/01/2012
design@bethlevinpiano.com
Ravel
Beth Levin is an acclaimed recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. “A pianist of rare qualities and the highest professional caliber,” states pianist Paul Badura-Skoda of Beth, and throughout her celebrated career she has approached both the Romantic repertoire and contemporary composers with equal facility and grace.
At age 12, Beth made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and soon after was selected to study with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music. “Mr. Serkin was an inspiration the moment he walked into a room,” she recalls, “a single word evoking the eloquence of a poem.”
Beth made her New York solo recital debut in 1982 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2007, she performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Steinway Hall in New York City, a return for her to a composer in “the first repertoire I had studied as a child.”
As a concerto soloist, Beth has appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Boston Civic Symphony, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and numerous other symphony orchestras throughout the Americas, working with noted conductors such as William Smith, Arthur Fiedler, Benjamin Zander, Tonu Kalam, Sidney Rothstein, Milton Katims, Silas Huff and Joseph Silverstein.
Chamber music festival collaborations brought her to the Marlboro Festival, Casals Festival, Harvard, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Ankara Music Festival and the Blue Hill Festival. As a “Music From Marlboro” artist, she toured the United States and Canada.
A founding member of the Gramercy Trio, the American Arts Trio and Vista Lirica, Beth has also collaborated with the Audubon Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, The Reykjavik Woodwind Quintet, the Daniel Quartet, the Boston Artists Ensemble and the Saratoga Chamber Players, as well as touring Europe extensively with Trio Borealis.
In 2004, Beth traveled with Poetica Musica under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, performing and giving master classes in Croatia, Serbia and Turkey.
Her recordings include Bach’s Goldberg Variations, (Centaur Records, 2008) and Diabelli Variations/Beethoven (Centaur Records, 2011), as well as Schubert's “Wanderer Fantasy” and Scott Wheeler's “Artist Proofs,” both of which were released for the Taubman Institute Recordings. For Columbia Masterworks, she recorded the Hummel “Septet in D Minor.” Her performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio, WGBH (Boston), WFMT (Chicago) and WNYC, WNYE and WQXR (New York).
As a soloist, chamber musician and interpreter of contemporary music, Beth performed and recorded works by Alan Campbell, Marc Eychenne, Brian Fennelly, Steven R. Gerber, Henryk Górecki, Louis Karchin, Michael Rose, Allen Shearer, Scott Wheeler and David Del Tredici. Beth Levin’s musical education began with Maryan Filar at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, and in addition to Rudolf Serkin, her teachers included Leonard Shure at Boston University and Dorothy Taubman in New York City.
Concerts 2011/2012
Saturday, April 2, 8pm
Vista Lirica Ensemble
Tenri Cultural Inst.
43A w. 13th St.
Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50
Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115
Sunday, April 10
Performance at Andrea Clearfield's Salon in Philadelphia
Andrew Rudin Cello Sonata
Michal Schmidt, cello
Beth Levin, piano
Tuesday, April 26, 7:30 pm
Social networking with composer Douglas Townsend Concert
St. Peter's Church, 54th & Lexington Ave, Manhattan NY
Tickets: Free; $15 suggested contribution
Ephemera by Andrew Rudin
Beth Levin, piano; Neil Rynston, clarinet
Saturday, May 7, 2:30 pm
Premier
Andrew Rudin's Sonata for Violincello and Piano
plus Vierne, Debussy & Beethoven
Beth Levin, Piano
Samuel Magill, Cello
Bruno Walter Auditorium
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
111 Amsterdam Ave @ W. 65th St
admission free
Tuesday, June 14, 7:30 pm
Celebrations: Music of Andrew Rudin
Leonard Nimoy Thalia
Tickets: $25; Members, Students, Seniors $15
This is a concert celebrating the chamber music of Andrew Rudin. It features his Overture-Rondo for two pianos (Duo Stephanie & Saar), Celebrations for two pianos and percussion (Duo Stephanie & Sarr and Anthony Orlando), and Museum Pieces for piano solo (Beth Levin), the Sonata for violin and piano (Miranda Cuckson and Steve Beck), Ephemera for clarinet and piano (Neil Rynston and Beth Levin), and the world premier of a new Sonata for cello and piano performed by Jeffrey Solow and Beth Levin.
Thursday, June 16, 8pm
Repeat of Celebrations: Music of Andrew Rudin
Caplan Recital Hall
University of the Arts
320 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102"
Friday, July 22, 8pm
Bargemusic
Fulton Ferry Landing,
Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Beth Levin, piano
Works of Schumann, Rudin, Rameau, and a world premiere of a piece by Fairouz!
Wednesday, September 28, 12 noon
Schumann, Liederkreis with Mezzo Soprano, Emily Howard
The Interfaith Center 475 Riverside Drive (entrance 120 and Claremont)
Sunday, October 2, 3pm
Christ Chapel, Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue, NY
Works of Brahms, Schumann, Frank E Warren, and David F Golightly
Beth Levin, Piano; Frank Foerster, Viola; Emily Howard, Mezzo Soprano
Thursday, November 17, 1pm
Works of Brahms, Schumann, Frank E Warren, David F Golightly and Kevin Malone
University of Manchester, The Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, Manchester UK
Beth Levin, Piano; Cheryl Law, Viola; Emily Howard, Mezzo Soprano
Friday, November 18, 7:30pm
Works of Kevin Malone & Anthony Burgess
The Anthony Burgess Foundation,
Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester, UK
Beth Levin, Piano; Cheryl Law, Viola; Emily Howard, Mezzo Soprano
Saturday, December 10, 7pm
Benefit Concert for Buddha's Smile School
8 Miniatures for Piano by Mohammed Fairouz
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music/Park Slope
Visit http://buddhas-smile-school.org for more information
Sunday 11 December
Schumann Fantasy Pieces, An Adventure in Romantic Psychedelia
New York Open Center: 330 W 38th St, NYC
Friday 16 December 8pm
Schumann Fantasy Pieces, An Adventure in Romantic Psychedelia
22 East 30th Street (betw. Madison and 5th)
Open Center: Grand Room
A narration of E.T.A. Hoffmann's A New Year's Eve Adventure
its doppelgänger and flights of fancy interwoven with 3 pieces of Robert Schumann: Fantasy Pieces, Liederkreis, Op. 39 and Mächenerzählungen (Narrated Tales) to be performed by Vista Lirica musicians Emily Howard (mezzo), Neil Rynston (clarinet), Frank Foerster (viola) and Beth Levin (piano); and with visual renderings by Onomé Ekeh
Sunday, January 22, 2012, 4pm
Cello and Piano recital
works of Beethoven, Vierne,
Debussy and Rudin
Sam Magill and Beth Levin
Wactchung Arts Center
18 Stirling Road,
Watchung, NJ 07069
Friday, April 20, 2012, 7pm
Piano Recital
Faust Harrison Pianos
207 W 58th St
New York, NY 10019
Friday, June 8, 2012, 7pm
Premiere of a new work for piano by David Del Tredici
Brooklyn New Music Collective
The Firehouse Space
246 Frost St
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Monday, October 8, 2012
Beethoven III Concerto in C minor
Gian Luigi Zampiero and the Orquestra Sinfonica de Ribeirão Preto:
Pedro II Theatre on the Anniversary of the City of Ribeirao Preto
Sunday, November 18, 2012, 3pm
Schumann's piano concerto in a minor with
The Barton College/Wilson Symphony, Mark N. Peterson director
The Lauren Kennedy and Alan Campbell Theatre
Barton College
Wilson, North Carolina
Praise for Beth Levin:
“Ms. Levin kept the ear engaged with boldly inflected readings and an impressive ability to convey emotion without exhibition. Her technique was solid, and better still, her organic approach made it feel like an afterthought.”
Jeremy Eichler, The New York Times
“Over the years, Levin has transformed herself. The flame within still burns with undimmed intensity, but now there is warmth as well as blinding light.”
Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe
"A pianist with a bold interpretive personality and a powerful technique. She brought fire and originality to her program."
Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
"Her playing of Schumann's Carnival was at times dazzling in its virtuosity, at other times warmly moving in its sensitivity. Her performance was thoroughly persuasive."
Allen B. Skei, The Fresno Bee
"A pianist of rare qualities and the highest professional caliber. I was deeply impressed and moved by her performance at the last Marlboro Festival."
Paul Badura-Skoda
"Beth Levin was the highlight- and a bright light she was- of the opening concert of a new Portland series Sunday afternoon in Portland Art Museum."
Oregon Journal
"Miss Levin, who has well-drilled fingers and temperament to spare, romped through the nonstop virtuoso writing. But it was not all her show, and she subdued herself to let the other instruments have their say when the score indicated which, in all truth, is not too often. It was a bracing performance."
Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times
"Her performance of the Hummel Septet with a touring ensemble for Marlboro lingers in the memory as one of the supreme examples of pianistic energy and equilibrium in this reviewer's experience."
Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe
"These were performances Rudolf Serkin would have relished for their density and solidity of musical substance, and envied for their purely pianistic panache."
Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe
"Beth Levin’s performance is very much in the “I’ll play it my way” mode, but without a speck of disrespect to the composer. Quite the opposite; she plays as if in love with the notes. Tempos are deliberate, sometimes to the extreme. Repeats are taken at will. Voicing is unexpected. And yet there is always the sense that she is exploring Bach’s genius, as opposed to fashioning a vehicle for her own personality."
Peter Burwasser
Fanfare Magazine: Bach Goldberg Variations, Beth Levin, piano
Philadelphia's native daughter - Beth Levin, an exceptionally talented concert pianist
link here examiner.com
link to "Beethoven's Variations and Endless Imagination"
The New York Times
"Pianist Beth Levin likes the contrasts and is not afraid to underline
them, as well she should, and she is very brave in her choice of
tempos. To this end, note Var.24, a slow fughetta that she takes more
slowly than any other recorded pianist, and keeps it intact, graceful,
and clear throughout. Var.32,Fuga, is played slowly as well, with
leaden hands and ferocious accents-her reading of this double fugue
has the gravity of the high Baroque. By contrast, Levin ends this
variation with an elegant if quick take on the Minuet, her dynamics
varied and her attitude courtly, just as Mozart and Haydn would have
recognized...I remember Var.11, an adorable Allegretto, which Levin
plays as if winking at us from behind her fan...In general, the less
gregarious the variation, the better I like Levin's reading; despite
the fact that her playing is never self-effacing or shy...But when
she's good, which is very often, she's stunning."
Robert Levine, Sterophile Magazine
Andrew Rudin
