about rebecca

Rebecca Benjamin, a native of Warsaw IN, is an engaging and versatile musician who has made appearances across the United States and abroad. At home on both the violin and the viola, Rebecca is an active performer on both instruments. Ms. Benjamin will be competing in the Lionel Tertis Viola Competition in early 2025, and highlights of her 24-25 season include performances throughout the US and Europe including California, Florida, New York, Texas, England, and Germany. 

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Rebecca was a quarterfinalist at the 2023 ARD Viola Competition and a participant in the 2022 Tokyo International Viola Competition. She has participated in many festivals and programs such as Music@Menlo, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, MISQA, Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Aspen Music Festival, Aspen Wu Han/David Finkel Chamber Studio, Prussia Cove Masterclasses, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festiva, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Mimir Chamber Music Festival, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, and Caroga Lake Music Festival. Rebecca has worked and collaborated with members of the Brentano, Cleveland, Emerson, Juilliard, Orion, and Pacifica String Quartets, among many others.  

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A member of the Abeo Quartet, Rebecca joined the ensemble in 2021. Prizewinners of the 2022 Yellow Springs and Chesapeake Chamber Music Competitions, they were also semifinalists in the 2023 Melbourne International String Quartet Competition as well as the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition. In the 23-24 season, Abeo performed across the country from the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. to the La Jolla Music Society SummerFest. Abeo was the inaugural Graduate Fellowship String Quartet at the University of Delaware School of Music where they studied under the guidance of the Calidore String Quartet. Currently, the quartet is based out of New York City. 

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An experienced orchestral player, Ms. Benjamin was the former associate principal violist of Symphony in C. She has performed in Carnegie Hall as concertmaster of the New York String Orchestra Seminar and has also been a member of the Hartford Symphony and Akron Symphony orchestras. Rebecca has served as concertmaster for the Cleveland Institute of Music orchestra, the Symphony of the Lakes, the Music Institute of Chicago Academy Chamber Orchestra, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Youth Symphony. Rebecca has soloed with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Cleveland Institute of Music orchestra, MasterWorks Festival Orchestra, Fort Wayne Youth Symphony, Symphony of the Lakes, and the MIC Academy Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Benjamin has performed with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in NYC and was a founding member of the Munin Piano Trio. Currently, she performs regularly as a violist with the Houston Bach Society and Shepherd School Chamber Orchestras as well as with ProMusica Columbus. 

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Appointed as faculty of the Kneisel Hall Maine Students Program, Rebecca began teaching there in the summer of 2022. Her love for teaching blossomed during her studies at Yale, which brought her to the faculty of the Fairfield/Trumball School of Music in Fairfield, CT. She formerly taught a studio of young children there, and she received Suzuki teacher training at the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Graduating summa cum laude with her bachelors degree in Violin Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ms. Benjamin also holds a masters degree in violin from CIM as well as a Master of Musical Arts degree in violin from the Yale School of Music where she was awarded the Broadus Erle Prize in Violin. During the Abeo Quartet’s Delaware fellowship, Rebecca earned an additional masters degree in Viola Performance from the University of Delaware. Her principal teachers include Elias Goldstein, Hyo Kang, Jaime Laredo, Jeff Myers, Bill Preucil, Jan Sloman, Joel Smirnoff, Almita and Roland Vamos, and Derek Reeves. Rebecca is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Viola Performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas under the tutelage of James Dunham.