Beth Levin
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Beth Levin (December 17, 1950) is an American classical pianist in the Romantic tradition of her teachers Wikipedia:Marian Filar, Wikipedia:Rudolf Serkin, Leonard Shure, and Dorothy Taubman at the Wikipedia:Taubman Institute. Levin is devoted to the highly expressive and demanding repertoire of Wikipedia:Beethoven, Schumann, Wikipedia:Chopin, Wikipedia:Brahms, Wikipedia:Rachmaninoff, and Wikipedia:Ravel, as well as to the work of leading modernists such as Wikipedia:David Del Tredici, Alexander Goretzky, Louis Karchin, and Scott Wheeler.
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Early influences 
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Born in Wikipedia:Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Levin's fascination with music developed from the age of 3, when she first began piano lessons. Levin says: "Some of my earliest memories are of playing as my father sang. We were fortunate to have a brilliant pianist living just around the corner: Cecille Sharlip, who had emigrated from Europe to study at the Wikipedia:Curtis Institute of Music. Sharlip guided me until I was 12, at which time she suggested I audition for the great Chopin interpreter Marian Filar, who was then teaching at the Wikipedia:Settlement Music School (Philadelphia). I absorbed a sense of musical tradition that has never left me."[1] Working with Filar, himself a former student of Wikipedia:Walter Gieseking, led to Levin winning at the age of 12 an audition to perform with the Wikipedia:Philadelphia Orchestra. Four years later, she again appeared with that orchestra.
Musical education Edit
At the age of 17, Levin successfully auditioned for Serkin, then a professor of piano and director of the Curtis Institute. Levin said: “Mr. Serkin was an inspiration the moment he walked into a room, a single word evoking the eloquence of a poem.”[1] Other teachers at Curtis included chamber musicians Wikipedia:Arnold Steinhardt and Wikipedia:David Soyer, first violinist and cellist, respectively, of the Wikipedia:Guarneri Quartet. Levin completed her academic work as a Wikipedia:Boston University student of Leonard Shure, who was in turn a student and teaching assistant of the great Beethoven interpreter Wikipedia:Artur Schnabel. "I recall Shure asking me at the audition why I made music. 'Because I love it,' I said simply. He suggested we start lessons that very day."[1]
Performing career Edit
As a freshly minted performer, Levin undertook years of travel, both within the United States and abroad. Branching out into as many performing roles as possible, she appeared as a soloist, chamber music participant, and concerto soloist. As an artist in the “Music From Marlboro” program (an offshoot of the Marlboro Music School and Festival and the Curtis Institute), Levin worked with pianist Wikipedia:Paul Badura-Skoda, violinist Wikipedia:Sandor Vegh, founder of the renowned Wikipedia:Vegh Quartet, and bassist Julius Levine,. She appeared in other chamber music venues, accompanying Wikipedia:Raphael Hillyer of the Wikipedia:Juilliard Quartet and flutist Wikipedia:Paula Robison. Still in her early 20s, Levin appeared as piano concerto performer with the Wikipedia:Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Wikipedia:Arthur Fiedler, the Wikipedia:Seattle Symphony led by American musician and conductor Wikipedia:Milton Katims, and the Wikipedia:Boston Philharmonic led by Wikipedia:Benjamin Zander. European travel led Levin to Spain, Iceland, Serbia, and Turkey. In Iceland, where she continues to appear yearly as soloist, she founded and played for 10 years with Trio Borealis as well as with members of the Icelandic Symphony. She traveled throughout Spain as a member of the trio. She gave master classes in Serbia and Turkey under the aegis of the Wikipedia:U.S. State Department.
New York Edit
Establishing herself in New York, Levin studied with pre-eminent piano mentor Dorothy Taubman. Levin gave recitals at Wikipedia:Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Wikipedia:Steinway Hall, and the Wikipedia:Metropolitan Museum of Art. She worked with members of the Wikipedia:New York Philharmonic and recorded with other Marlboro musicians for Wikipedia:Columbia Masterworks Records. Concerts throughout the U.S. featured work with such chamber ensembles as the Wikipedia:Audubon Quartet and the Wikipedia:Vermeer Quartet. Levin is one of five musicians who comprise Vista Lirica, a chamber group devoted to the cause of environmentalism and the music of the Romantics. As part of her continued commitment to contemporary composers, Levin collaborated with Del Tredici to perform his “Ballad in Yellow.” Levin has appeared in broadcast interviews and performances on radio stations Wikipedia:WNYC, WNYE, and WQXR in New York, Wikipedia:WFMT in Chicago, and WGBH in Boston. She conducted American master classes at such institutions as Wikipedia:New York University and Wikipedia:The College of William & Mary.
Recent recordings Edit
In 2008, Levin recorded the Wikipedia:Goldberg Variations by Wikipedia:Bach, released by Centaur Records. She plans a series of performances and recording of Beethoven's extended late work, the Wikipedia:Diabelli Variations. Jeremy Eichler, in a review in the Wikipedia:New York Times on June 10, 2005, accurately summarizes Levin's Romantic pianism: “Ms. Levin [keeps] the ear engaged with boldly inflected readings and an impressive ability to convey emotion without exhibition."[2]
ReferencesEdit
- Faust Harrison Pianos Features Beth Levin, 4/20 Wikipedia:Broadway World. Anarchangel (talk) 03:03, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
- [1] "Levin is also cited by name in Filar's published memoirs." From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall published memoirs. Beth Levine, page 196
