At age 12, Beth Levin made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Soon after, she was selected as one of three students to study with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music. She has merited the ongoing acclaim of colleagues and critics as an exceptional talent in all possible genres: concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and recording artist.
In addition to several solo appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ms. Levin has also been a concerto soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Boston Civic Symphony, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and numerous other symphony orchestras throughout the Americas. As such, Ms. Levin has worked with noted conductors William Smith, Arthur Fiedler, Benjamin Zander, Milton Katims, Silas Huff and Joseph Silverstein. In 1999 she played the Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Orchestra of Quito (Ecuador). More recently in April 2006, she played Chopin’s Concerto in e-minor with conductor Tonu Kalam and the Longview Symphony (Texas). She performed this concerto again in November 2006 with the Wilson Chamber Ensemble (NC).
Ms. Levin made her New York solo recital debut in 1982 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This led to invitations as a solo recitalist at the Gardner Museum, Forum (NC), the Dame Myra Hess Series (Chicago), Harvard University, Randolph Macon College, New York University, Williams College, the Brooklyn Museum, Merkin Hall and Weill Recital Hall. A devotée of Taubman technique, she has been a repeat guest recitalist at the Taubman International Piano Festival. In June 2005, she played a critically acclaimed recital at New York’s Yamaha Salon.
Emotional Pianism: Throughout, 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, June 10, 2005 The New York Times
A Mozart recital in Reykjavik, Iceland on his birthday, January 27, 2006 also garnered critical acclaim.She excerpted this Reykjavik concert at a gala honoring David Amram at The Manhattan Supper Club on June 5, 2006. Throughout her career, noted music critics have had similar responses to her solo recitals:
"A pianist with a bold interpretive personality and a powerful technique. She brought fire and originality to her pro- gram." Allan Koznin, 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, Boston Globe
On April 28, 2007 she played Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Steinway Hall (NYC). A recording of this live performance will be released on Centaur Records in early 2008.
As a ‘Music From Marlboro’ artist, she toured the United States and Canada. She has collaborated with the Audubon Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, The Reykjavik Woodwind Quintet, the Daniel Quartet, the Boston Artists Ensemble and the Saratoga Chamber Players. Chamber music festival collaborations also brought her to the Marlboro Festival, Casals Festival, Harvard, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Blue Hill Festival. In February and March of 2004 Ms. Levin toured with Poetica Musica under the auspices of the US State Department. In this forum, she performed and gave master classes in Croatia, Serbia and Turkey including the Ankara Music Festival. She has also toured Europe extensively with Trio Borealis. Ms. Levin was a founder of the Gramercy Trio and the American Arts Trio. As a founding member also of Vista Lirica, she played their inaugural concert in February 2005 and has performed with this ensemble many times since then.
"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
"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
Recordings and radio broadcasts include Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy and Scott Wheeler's Artist Proofs (1998) which have been released on the Palexa label. For Columbia Masterworks, she recorded the Hummel Quintet in D minor. She has been broadcast on National Public Radio, WGBH (Boston), WFMT (Chicago) and WNYC, WNYE and WQXR (New York).
As a soloist and chamber musician of contemporary music, Ms. Levin has also performed and recorded works by Alan Campbell, Marc Eychenne, Brian Fennelly, Steven R. Gerber, Alexander Goretzky, Louis Karchin, Michael Rose, Scott Wheeler and David Del Tredici.
Her training began with Maryan Filar at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. In addition to Rudolf Serkin, her teachers have included Leonard Shure at Boston University and Dorothy Taubman in New York City.
