Beth Levin, Piano

Biography

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, released on Centaur Records in 2008, 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.

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