3.17 - Lynn Bechtold
Violinist/composer Lynn Bechtold, a native of Pittsburgh, has appeared in recital throughout the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, and Switzerland. An advocate of new music, she has worked with composers such as Derek Bermel, Carter Burwell, Gloria Coates, George Crumb, Beatriz Ferreyra, John Harbison, and Morton Subotnick, and has premiered works on the Tribeca New Music Festival and the Princeton Composers' Series. In 2001, she gave the premiere of Violynn, a work for violin and electronics written for her by Alvin Lucier. All About Jazz noted her for her "virtuosity and technical expertise," I CARE IF YOU LISTEN pointed out her "brilliance of sound, technical mastery, and stunning expressivity," San Diego Story called her "unapologetically dominating," and Strings Magazine labeled her "impressive" and "close to the edge."
She performs in groups including Miolina, Missing Link Ensemble, the SEM Ensemble, CompCord Ensemble, and N/S Consonance. Past groups include Zentripetal, Bleecker StQ, Quartet Metadata, Tenth Intervention, and NineLive. Other performances have been with Absolute Ensemble, Alison Cook Beatty Dance, Bleecker StQ, Carnegie Hall's Link Up Orchestra, DJ Spooky, East Village Opera Company, Emily Johnson/Catalyst Dance, EnterArt, disco band Escort, Eternal Tango Orchestra, Glass Farm Ensemble, Lumina String Quartet, NY Symphonic Ensemble, Parsons Dance, Paul Taylor Dance Company, 10 Hairy Legs, Vermont Symphony, VisionIntoArt, VOX Opera Readings, and Pablo Ziegler. She has also performed with entertainers such as Jon Batiste, Andrea Bocelli, Boyz II Men, Sarah Brightman, 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, Suzanne Vega, and Stevie Wonder. In a work by artist Derrick Adams, she was part of Performa '13, the performance art biennial.
An active performer, she has played at diverse venues such as the Blue Note, Bowery Ballroom, Carnegie Hall, Citi Field, the Frick Museum, the Harvard Club, Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Merkin Hall, The Met Museum, MoMA, National Sawdust, nublu, le Poisson Rouge, Radio City Music Hall, The Skyscraper Museum, The Smithsonian, St. John the Divine, and The Whitney Museum. Radio/TV broadcasts include CBC, NHK, WKCR, WNYC, CBS Morning Show, Good Day NY, 30 Rock, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Lynn received her Masters Degree 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 New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University. While at NEC, she worked with visiting composers John Cage, Gyorgi Ligeti, and Toru Takemitsu, among others. She has participated in festivals including Kneisel Hall, Meadowmount, Musicorda, Pacific Music Festival, Scotia Festival, and both Spoleto Festivals, as well as masterclasses with Pierre Amoyal, Lydian String Quartet, Orion String Quartet, Quatuor Diotima, and Frances-Marie Uitti.
She composes acoustic and electroacoustic music. Her compositions have been performed on various series and festivals, including Access Contemporary Music, Birmingham New Music Festival, Circuit Bridges, Composers Concordance, COMPOSERSFest XIII, Composers Voice, JUMP, La Cupula Galeria de Arte Livestream Series, Music With a View, NWEAMO, Relevant Tones, Soft Series, Sonic Circuits Festival, Sound of Silent Film Festival, and Sound Traffic, and at venues such as the Austrian Cultural Forum NYC, Bohemian National Hall, Fundación Beethoven in Buenos Aires, Institut Finlandais in Paris, National Opera Center, Nordia House in Portland, and Universidad Nacional in Córdoba. Her works have been performed by performers such as CompCord Ensemble, EnterArt Dance, ETHEL, Miolina, Missing Link Ensemble, The Overlook Quartet, Two Sides Sounding, Zentripetal, cellists Daniel Hass, Nelly Rocha, and Anja Wood, and violinist Funda Cizmecioglu. As a composer, she's worked with chef Kurt Gutenbrunner and with tap dancer Max Pollak. With visual artist Cecilia Mandrile, their video collaborations have been exhibited at Meghívó: DIGITÁLIS AGORA - III, Digitális Müvészeti Triennálé Festival in Budapest, Hungary (2021-22); Impact: Art that Bears Witness, Bethany Arts in Ossining, NY (2022); Experimental Loop Festival on Governors Island, NYC (2023); La Visibilidad es una trampa at Usina Cultural in Villa Maria, Argentina (2023); Courts Carouge Festival in Carouge, Switzerland (2024); Scores Exhibition at Ubicua Gallery in London, UK (2025); 2nd Prize at Envisioning a Just Pittsburgh at Carnegie Museum of Art & August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh (2026); and at Public Shorts Festival in Berlin, Germany (2026). Live performances of their collaborations have taken place at Goddard-Riverside Center, Greenwich House Music School, Loft 393, National Opera Center, and Westbeth Arts (NYC); La Cúpula (Córdoba, Argentina); and Usina Cultural (Villa Maria, Argentina). In 2023, Cecilia and Lynn were artists-in-residence at Alfred University's Institute for Electronic Arts.
Lynn is on the faculties of Greenwich House Music School and the Town School in NYC, and serves as a violin coach for the Norwalk Youth Symphony in CT. Since 2024, she has been a member of the summer faculty at Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Festival in Vermont. She is the recipient of grants from City Artists Corp, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York Foundation for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Queens Theatre, the Leopold Schepp Foundation, and the Hilda Mesta Willis Fund. With her duo Miolina, she has also been awarded grants from American-Scandinavian Foundation, Japan Foundation NY, LMCC, New Music USA, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Women Composers, and Queens Council on the Arts.
Active behind the scenes as well, Lynn is co-artistic director of violin duo Miolina. In 2018, she became a board member of New York Women Composers. Lynn was a co-director Ladies First, a concert series from 2012-2020, that highlighted female diversity in music and other fields.
https://www.violynn.net
