Leslie Van Becker
Richard and Helen DeVos Chair
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, 1995 and 2005 performing Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher, Will Gay Bottje’s Concerto for Piano and Viola, Walton’s Viola Concerto and Bruch’s Romanze and Von Weber’s Andante and Rondo Ungararese. 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 serves on the faculty of Calvin College and Grand Rapids Community College 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 bass major at Michigan State University, and Genevieve who is attending the School of the Chicago Art Institute. Leslie and Edward share their 98-year-old Heritage Hill home with their two cats.
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