Leslie Van Becker
Leslie Van Becker has been principal viola of the Grand Rapids Symphony since 1978. She earned a bachelor of music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and master’s in music from the Yale University School of Music. She attended the Conservatory with a four-year full tuition Rockefeller Grant and held a School of Music Assistantship at Yale. Her principal teachers included Raphael Hillyer and William Lincer, and she studied chamber music with Broadus Earle and the Lennox and Concord Quartets.
In recital, Ms. Van Becker has appeared with Ghandarva Piano Quartet, Trio Nouveau, New World String Quartet, and Lakeshore Chamber Players. She has appeared as a soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony on its Casual Classics Series in 1987, 1989 and 1995 performing Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher, Will Gay Bottje’s Concerto for Piano and Viola and Walton’s Viola Concerto. In addition, she was featured in Don Quixote on the Symphony’s Grand Series in DeVos Performance Hall. She participates each year as principal viola in the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California, where she plays orchestra and chamber music exclusively from the 20th century. Ms. Van Becker has served on the faculty of Western Michigan University and maintains an active class of viola students in Grand Rapids.
She and her husband Edward Clifford, a flutist who often performs with the Symphony, have two children: Matthew, who is a jazz and classical bass major at Michigan State University, and Genevieve who is a sophomore at De Paul University in Chicago. Leslie and Edward share their 95-year old Heritage Hill home with their two cats.
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