Betinis, Abbie (21st January 1980-Present)

She is an alto singer and composer born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin to a family where she is the grand niece of the Christmas carol composer Alfred Burt. She started to play the piano when she was 4 years old at the Suzuki Center. After attending high school she graduated from St. Olaf College where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in music theory and composition was a member of the St. Olaf Choir and worked in various musical groups. She had to take a break from the college for a period when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and had to return to her home to receive chemotherapy. She went on to take further studies at the University of Minnesota, where she earned her Master of Arts degree and in Paris, France where she was awarded a diploma from the European American Musical Alliance Institute.

She became a freelance composer and copyist and worked for the composer Libby Larssen. At the same time she sang as a professional member of The Dale Warland Singers.

As a composer she has written many works, with at least 60 on commission, and has had her pieces performed at numerous venues including Carnegie Hall. Some of the groups she has written compositions for include the American Choral Directors Association, Cantus, the Dale Warland Singers, the New England Philharmonic, the St. Olaf Choir and Zeitgeist along with many others.

She has often collaborated with other artists and in 2017 she was was a co-founder of Justice Choir and a co-editor of the Justice Choir Songbook. She has had worked published by several publishers including her own Abbie Betinis Music Co.

When se was 31 years old she was voted one of America’s top 100 Composers Under 40 by National Public Radio and New York radio station WQXR-FM,. She has been the recipient of several awards and grants and is a two-time McKnight Artistic Fellow.

She has been the composer-in-residence for The Rose Ensemble, The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, the New York State School Music Association and The Schubert Club, which she joined in 2005. She became the American Composer Forum’s ChoralQuest composer in 2019. Her “Nattsanger (Nightsongs)” got an honorable mention at ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and each year there is a premiere of her new Christmas carol broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio.

Recordings her work as a composer/artist can be heard on include Everything She Touches Changes by Amasong, Sleeper’s Prayer: Choral Music from North America by Choir of Merton College, Oxford, Wishes and Candles by the Ebor Singers, Bright Angel: American Works for Clarinet and Piano by Kimberly Cole Luevano, Promise of Peace: Christmas Festival 2022 by St. Olaf Choir, New Millennium by St. John’s College Choir, Cambridge, Christmas with the Dale Warland Singers by The Dale Warland Singers, Into the Night- Contemporary Choral Music by Vox Humana and Shine – Vespers 2011 by Various artists and many others.

In the field of musical education she is an Adjunct Professor of Composition at Concordia University-St. Paul.

Dale Warland Singers recordings
Three Nativity Carols: The Holly and the Ivy, This Endris Night, Wonder Tidings
Gothic 49208 (CD: Christmas with the Dale Warland Singers)
Arranger – Stephen Paulus
Conductor – Dale Warland
Oboe – Kathleen Robinson
Harp – Kathy Kienzie

Sources:

Betinis, Abbie (21st January 1980-Present)

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