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Bettina Mussumeli began her violin studies at age eleven. At thirteen she was accepted as a scholarship student at the Juilliard School, Pre-College Division. She received her Bachelor and Master of Musical Arts degrees from Juilliard, also on full scholarship. She has studied with such eminent teachers as Dorothy Delay, Ivan Galamian, Paul Doktor, and Kato Havas, as well as chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri and Cleveland Quartets.
Her numerous solo and chamber music recordings include works of Corelli, Mendelssohn, Pergolesi, Schoenberg, Rolla and Vivaldi for the Agora, Erato, Concerto, and Tactus labels. She has been professor of violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 2001.
“Growing up at the Juilliard School during famed violin teacher Ivan Galamian’s rein, one knew that playing the violin was a solitary affair. Although participation in orchestra and chamber music were required even at the Pre College level, we knew that nothing was to interfere with our 6 hours of individual practice. Summer camps like Meadowmount, Galamian’s beautiful Adirondacks retreat, were structured to reinforce this discipline. Yes, we made lots of progress in technique and repertoire, but it was a solitary affair.
“Enter the influence of Alexander Schneider. The enthusiasm, energy and commitment to music making as a team sport infected us at his New York Christmas Seminar and began my love of chamber music. That love was further nurtured and fine-tuned to the string quartet by my participation in such festivals as the Cleveland Quartet seminar, and many wonderful summers at the Quartet program with Charlie Castleman and the Guarneri string quartet.
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Working through Mendelssohn octet with Misha Schneider, discovering the true meaning of those dots in the Mozart urtext scores with Robert Levin, studying Shostakovich #8 with Don Weilerstein, those were the moments that I remember most and that helped shape me into the musician I am today.
“After graduating Juilliard, I was invited to be co-concertmaster of the Italian chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti, specializing in the music of the Italian Baroque. We toured and recorded extensively, playing in the worlds’ most beautiful halls. I founded the Chicago String Trio and Duo Rolla. And after I left Solisti Veneti, I was lucky enough to be invited to guest concertmaster of many symphony and opera orchestras, exploring a completely different musical genre. I founded a music school and my own chamber music festival. And in 2001, after 18 years in Italy, I was invited to join the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory.
“After so many years of diverse musical experience sitting down to read with the Ives was like coming home to my first love, quartet playing. There was no question that this was a great fit.
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