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LYNN

A native of Pittsburgh, violinist/composer Lynn Bechtold has appeared in recital throughout the U.S., Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, and Switzerland. An advocate of contemporary music, she has worked with composers such as Carter Burwell, Gloria Coates, George Crumb, Beatriz Ferreyra, John Harbison, and Morton Subotnick, and has premiered works on the NWEAMO Festival, Princeton Composers' Series, and the TriBeCa New Music Festival. In 2001, she gave the premiere of "Violynn," a work for violin and electronics written for her by Alvin Lucier. Called 'up-and-coming' by TimeOut and noted in All About Jazz for her 'virtuosity and technical expertise,' she performs with Miolina, Zentripetal, Quartet Metadata, CompCord Ensemble, North/South Consonance, SEM Ensemble, Tenth Intervention, and the disco band Escort, and has been a member of groups that have included Bleecker StQ and the East Village Opera Company (rock/opera band). San Diego Story recently called her "unapologetically dominating."

 

Ms. Bechtold has performed around the world, and has been heard on CBC Radio, CBS-TV, NBC-TV, NHK-TV, and WNYC, and on shows such as 30 Rock, The CBS Morning Show, Good Day NY, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Other programs have been with Absolute Ensemble, Catalyst Dance, DJ Spooky, the NY Symphonic Ensemble, Parsons Dance, Paul Taylor Dance Company, 10 Hairy Legs, the Vermont Symphony, VisionIntoArt, VOX Opera Readings, and Pablo Ziegler. In addition, she's performed with entertainers such as Boyz II Men, Michael Bublé, Willie Colon, Sheryl Crow, Dead Can Dance, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Band, Roberta Flack, Josh Groban, Cyndi Lauper, Left Banke, Smokey Robinson, J-Pop band SMAP, Donna Summer, and Stevie Wonder. As part of a project by artist Derrick Adams, she was part of Performa '13, the performance art biennial. An active performer, she has performed at diverse venues such as the Blue Note, Carnegie Hall, Citi Field, the Frick Museum, the Harvard Club, Issue Project Room, Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Merkin Hall, National Sawdust, nublu, (le) Poisson Rouge, Radio City Music Hall, Rockwood Music Hall, St John the Divine, and the Whitney Museum.

 

She received her M.M.from Mannes–The New School for Music, where she was a student of noted violinist Felix Galimir. Prior to that, she received a double-degree in Violin and English from the New England Conservatory and Tufts University in Boston. In addition, she likes to compose electroacoustic works, and to write articles about food/music/life. Her compositions have been performed on Access Contemporary Music's Sound of Silent Film Festival, the Circuit Bridges Festival, Composers Concordance Festival, C-Y Series, Electro-Music Festival, JUMP Series, Music With a View Festival, NWEAMO Festival, Skeleton Crawl Art Ball, Sonic Circuits, and Sound Traffic series, as well as at venues such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, Bohemian National Hall, and St. John's University, in NYC. She is co-director of the Ladies First Series, and a board member of New York Women Composers.

 

Lynn has been the recipient of grants from City Artists Corp, the Hilda Mesta Willis Fund, the Leopold Schepp Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and Queens Theatre. She is on the faculties of The Dwight School, Greenwich House Music School, and The Town School in NYC, and serves as a coach for the Norwalk Youth Symphony in CT.

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www.violynn.net

Photo by Mira Nitzberg

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