BIOGRAPHY
Betty Bley, Clarinet
Betty Bley is a professional clarinetist and music educator. She is the Principal Clarinetist in The Loudoun Symphony Orchestra and is a Vandoren Artist Clinician. She also performs regularly with The Washington Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra. She maintains a large private studio and works throughout Northern Virginia as an adjudicator, clinician, master class instructor, clarinet sectional coach, and freelance musician.
Ms. Bley’s students are routinely selected as principal players in local youth orchestras, youth wind programs, All-District Bands, Senior Regional Orchestras, and the Virginia All-State Bands and Orchestras on all types of clarinets including Bb Soprano, Eb Soprano, Bass Clarinet, Contra Alto Clarinet and Contra Bass Clarinet. Many of Ms. Bley’s students have been selected to perform in the NafME All-National Honor Band and the Music For All Honor Band of America. One of her students was the Woodwind Division Winner in the nation-wide SmartMusic Bumblebee Competition. Her students have also been selected as finalists in the annual Sidney Forrest Clarinet Competition, and one of them was the winner of the High School division.
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Ms. Bley is the editor of clarinet music for the Virginia Band & Orchestra Directors Association, grading and maintaining a database of over 4,000 solo and ensemble works for clarinet (as an unpaid volunteer).
Ms. Bley holds a MMA in Clarinet Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory, a MS in Management Information Systems from the George Washington University, a BA in Music and a BS in Psychology from the College of William & Mary, and attended the University of Michigan School of Music at Interlochen. She has performed many times as a soloist at the Bruges Conservatory in Belgium, where she received a Clarinetissimo Talent Award for her “outstanding performances and high artistic level.”
Ms. Bley has studied clarinet with Barbara Duman of Reston, Virginia, Patti Carlson of the Virginia Symphony, Sidney Forrest of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, William Wright of the National Symphony Orchestra, Larry Bocaner of the National Symphony Orchestra, Garrick Zoeter of Shenandoah Conservatory, and Paul Cigan of the National Symphony Orchestra. She is currently studying Alexander Technique and Body Mapping with Shawn Copeland.