BIOGRAPHY
“inventive, richly melodic” (The New York Times)
“joyful… shattering, incandescent”
(Boston Globe)
“extraordinary music by a greatly gifted young composer”
(Chicago Classical Review)
Composer Abbie Betinis creates “inventive” (The New York Times), “beguiling” (BBC Music Magazine) music that “pushes forward a brooding, dissonant unease” (Boston Globe), or “expands into ethereal realms” (Cambridge University Press). With performances from Carnegie Hall to Disney Hall, state prisons to capitol buildings, international cathedrals to intimate summer campfires, her music transports performers and audiences alike through storytelling, relevance, and craft.
Known for her expressive text-setting, Abbie’s many vocal commissions include new work for Cantus, Chorus Pro Musica with the New England Philharmonic, Conspirare with Miró String Quartet, Dale Warland Singers, Lyric Fest, St Olaf Choir, and soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw. Her chamber work has been commissioned by Chione Wind Quintet, Flying Forms Baroque, Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra, James Sewell Ballet, Zeitgeist, and the Zodiac Trio, and received its UK debut with "Rhapsodos," performed in Wigmore Hall by clarinetist Michael Collins and pianist Michael McHale.
Lauded in Musical America for her “contrapuntal vitality” and “ability to use her talents to effect social change,” Abbie is a two-time McKnight Artist Fellow, with additional grants and projects funded by the American Choral Directors Association, American Composers Forum, ASCAP, American Suzuki Foundation, Minnesota Music Educators Association, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. At age 31, she was voted one of the top 100 Composers Under 40 by listeners of National Public Radio and New York’s WQXR-FM. On Minnesota Public Radio, her premieres of fresh, new Christmas carols has become a beloved holiday tradition. On public television, her early career as a cancer survivor finding her voice is profiled in the regional Emmy award-winning documentary “Never Stop Singing.” Her song cycle “Nattsanger (Nightsongs)” for soprano, clarinet and piano won an Honorable Mention in ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and is distributed by Naxos.
With early titles published by Augsburg Fortress, Graphite Publishing, Kjos, and Santa Barbara Music, as well as in the esteemed “Dale Warland Series” at G. Schirmer, distributed by Hal Leonard, Abbie now publishes primarily through her own Abbie Betinis Music Co. and distributes worldwide from her home studio. Her most widely-recognized publication is perhaps the Justice Choir Songbook (2017) – a collaborative resource for community transformation through singing – now used in schools, streets, prisons, faith communities, and protest movements nationwide.
Abbie is an advocate for small business and artist rights, and has presented on copyright and publishing at national conferences, organized national exhibits for independent publishers, and has been a community liaison to the board of the American Composers Forum.
As a frequent guest clinician, Abbie enjoys bringing the “why” off the page and into the energy of a rehearsal. She has held residencies with the New York State School Music Association, The Rose Ensemble, The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, and – for 12 years – The Schubert Club, where she continues to host an eclectic weekly concert series.
Originally a Suzuki kid from Wisconsin, Abbie studied composition at St. Olaf College, the University of Minnesota, and the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France. For over a decade, she was adjunct professor of music composition at Concordia University-St Paul, has also taught at St. Olaf College, and now maintains a small home studio in St Paul, Minnesota.
Short Bio: (99 words)
Composer Abbie Betinis creates music called “inventive” (The New York Times), and “joyful… shattering, incandescent” (Boston Globe). With performances from Carnegie Hall to Disney Hall, cathedrals to campfires, state prisons to capitol buildings, her music transports audiences through storytelling, relevance, and craft. Recognized by Musical America for her “contrapuntal vitality” and “ability to use her talents to effect social change,” she is co-editor of the Justice Choir Songbook, a resource for community transformation through singing. She lives in Minnesota, where she has taught composition at St. Olaf College and Concordia University-St Paul, and is a two-time McKnight Artist Fellow.