Violist Bethany Hargreaves has performed as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician across North America, Europe, China, and Israel. Notable performances include her solo debut on Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and two concerto appearances with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. Most recently, Hargreaves appeared on a Yale School of Music Faculty Artist Series alongside faculty members Michael Friedmann, Ani Kavafian, and Wei-Yi Yang performing Arnold Schöenberg’s Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Op. 41 and, in the summer of 2021 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, was called in on three days notice to perform with the Emerson String Quartet.
A passionate chamber musician, Hargreaves has collaborated in concert with distinguished musicians such as Julio Elizalde, Jennifer Frautschi, Miriam Fried, Dimitri Murrath, Ani Kavafian, Itzhak Perlman, as well as members of the Aizuri Quartet, Brentano String Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, and the Orion String Quartet. Additionally, she is currently a member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and New Haven Symphony Orchestra viola sections and has performed as a principal orchestral musician on stages including Alice Tully Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, KKL Luzern, and Severance Hall.
Hargreaves’ festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and New Music Workshop, Olympic Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Toronto Summer Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program Summer Music School and Chamber Music Workshop. During her years of association with the Perlman Music Program, she has participated in residencies in Sarasota, Florida, and Tel Aviv, Israel. Hargreaves has also engaged in extensive community engagement through the Perlman Music Program, which included interactive performances on Long Island, New York City, and Sarasota in schools and assisted living facilities. Other appearances with the Perlman Music Program include performances in Bing Hall at Stanford University, the Ringling Museum of Art, and the Sarasota Opera House.
In addition to her positions with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Hargreaves has performed with the Blossom Festival Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and the Sarasota Orchestra, and has served as principal viola of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, and Sarasota Orchestra. While at The Juilliard School, Hargreaves served as principal viola for the 2017 Juilliard Orchestra Scandinavian tour in collaboration with the Sibelius Academy under Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. She currently performs with multiple New York City based chamber music ensembles including Center for Musical Excellence, Frission Ensemble, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, New York Classical Players, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Versoi Ensemble, and the Noree Chamber Soloists, the latter with whom she held a residency at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute.
Hargreaves began studying violin with Rebecca Ensworth at the age of five and later switched to viola when she was twelve years old, studying with Louise Zeitlin. Her other primary teachers include Misha Amory, Heidi Castleman, Ettore Causa, Jeffrey Irvine, and Lynne Ramsey. She holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Juilliard School as a Kovner Fellow, and the Yale School of Music as a Stephen and Denise Adams Fellowship and Grosvenor Memorial Prize for Viola Accomplishment recipient.
Hargreaves currently resides in New Haven with her husband, violinist Gregory Lewis. She plays on a viola made by her dear friend, Gabrielle Kundert.
Bethany Hargreaves has taught numerous violin and viola students ranging from beginners through college level. She was raised with the Suzuki Method with one of the most prominent Suzuki violin teachers in America, Rebecca Ensworth. After teaching the Suzuki Method herself through high school and during her undergraduate degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hargreaves became Suzuki Twinkle through Book 1 certified through the Cleveland Institute of Music studying pedagogy with Kimberly Meyer-Sims.
Hargreaves has also taught extensively through community engagement with the Perlman Music Program and the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast, which consisted of interactive chamber music performances and presentations in schools throughout Long Island, New York City, and Sarasota County. In the New York metropolitan area, she has taught privately at the Fairfield School of Music, Metropolitain Concert Artists, the Yale School of Music as a Teaching Artist, and currently teaches at Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, Connecticut, in addition to her private home/online studio.
If you are interested in enrolling in private violin or viola lessons and would like more information, you can reach Bethany through the Contact page. All ages and levels are welcome.