Through the years, performing as a violinist has been one of the highlights of my life. At age seven, I had my first lesson. By age nine, my parents engaged a more talented teacher, who happened to be from Czechoslovakia. Every Saturday morning, my mom or dad would drive me from our suburb to her home in Cleveland Heights. Our little dog, Sparky, would often accompany us, and enjoyed a walk around her neighborhood during my lesson.
I first heard of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) when I was about ten, and being accepted into the orchestra quickly became my dream. At thirteen, I began practicing violin for a few hours a day, and that same year, 1995, I was accepted into COYO. Also, that year, I began working with a new teacher, who was a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
In 2007, Carol gave Bethany a beautiful violin that had been in her family for many years.
The ENCORE School for Strings was founded by my teacher and her husband in 1985. I attended the six-week program three times, at age fourteen, fifteen and sixteen. These were some of the happiest times of my life. The program housed about a hundred fifty violinists, violists and cellists. ENCORE was located on the campus of Ohio’s Western Reserve Academy, and its landscaping was immaculate. The old red brick buildings were beautiful, and a white wooden chapel seating two hundred was located near the center of campus.
At seventeen, I made the decision to pursue a college degree in science rather than in music, but violin was still a huge part of my life. My freshman year of college, I became concertmaster (first violin) of my university’s community orchestra. A friend who was a music major found me opportunities to play for recording studios.
During the four years I was homeless and mentally ill, I sold my professional violin for a very low price, and used the money to support charity work in Africa. When I finally began treatment and could think clearly, I was heartbroken to have sold my violin. But it was at that time, in spring of 2007, that a family friend generously gave me a violin that had been in her family for many years. She is pictured above.
Today, I play often for churches. I have also performed for medical professionals interested in my full recovery (see my homepage, here).
Watch: Videos of my performance at my high school senior violin recital, from 1999.
Bethany, what an interesting story about your life and how you became such a wonderful violinist. How honored I feel that you have included such a nice picture of the two of us in your profile. It is so exciting to me to see how God is using you to play such beautiful music for so many people with that old violin that had been in my family for so many years. My Mother and Dad would have been so thrilled if they could have heard you and my Mother would have been thrilled to have accompanied you as she so often had accompanied a violinist from her church. May God bless you as you continue to serve Him with your music and your opportunities to tell others about your life and how He has healed you in such a miraculous way. With love, Carol