Beth Levin - Beethoven: Diabelli Variations (2010)

American pianist Beth Levin has devoted herself to playing music in the Romantic tradition, and her repertoire of works by Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, and Rachmaninov outlines her main area of interest. Yet she has also played new music by contemporary composers, such as David Del Tredici, Alexander Goretzky, Louis Karchin, and Scott Walker, showing that she is much in demand as an interpreter of modern and neo-Romantic music. Raised in Philadelphia, Levin began taking music lessons at age 3, and studied piano with Cecille Sharlip until she was 12, when she auditioned for Marian Filar at the Settlement Music School, and debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra. At 17, Levin began studying with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music, and in subsequent years, studied with Paul Badura-Skoda. She has perfomed with violinist Sándor Végh, bassist Julius Levine, violist Raphael Hillyer, and flutist Paula Robison. In concert, Levin has appeared as a soloist with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic, and Milton Katims and the Seattle Symphony. She has performed extensively across the United States and Europe, forming a special connection with Iceland, where she became a founding member of the Trio Borealis. She established herself in New York, where she has played recitals at Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has recorded for Centaur and Navona Records. ~ Blair Sanderson