Education

In 2001, at the age of nine, Bethan was offered a scholarship to Wells Cathedral School, one of the five specialist music schools in Great Britain, where she studied violin with Catherine Lord, viola with Philip Dukes, piano with Olena Shvetsova and jazz piano with Dhevdhas Nair. In 2010, she gained a scholarship to study composition with Gary Carpenter and violin with Lelend Chen at the Royal Northern College of Music. Most recently, Bethan has been studying for a Masters degree in composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (2017-9), to where she had gained a scholarship to study with Diderik Wagenaar, Peter Adriaansz, Calliope Tsoupaki and Richard Barrett; she also continued her violin studies with Theodora Geraets.

 

And before?

Bethan started playing the violin when she was three years old, studying with the late Derek Jackson of Kerry, Newtown. She grew up in mid-Wales playing folk music and accompanying local country dancing, and later took up piano and singing lessons. Bethan won her first solo competition, for under-16 instrumentalists, when just five years old, following this with successes at competitions across Wales, including the Under-12 and Under-15 String Solo classes at the Urdd National Eisteddfod in 2002 and 2003, and the Under-16 String Solo class at the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales, while still only thirteen. Following on from membership of the North Powys Youth Orchestra – where she led the 2nd violin section from the age of six – and the National Children’s Orchestra from the age of seven, she was a member of the National Children’s Chamber Orchestra in 2005 and the National Youth Chamber Orchestra in 2006. Bethan made her concerto debut – with Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor – at the age of fourteen, with Kenneth Woods and the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra. Her training as a classical musician has always sat alongside her various other interests – inc. folk, jazz, electronic and contemporary music, having appeared on stage with ensembles ranging from the London Gala Orchestra to the Grammy-winning funk collective Snarky Puppy.

 

Bethan gained early recognition as a composer too, winning the Under-15 Composition class at the Urdd National Eisteddfod in 2004, and with string works performed at Wells, Colston Hall, the University of Bristol, and the Royal Northern College of Music in 2005/6.