Biography

Winner of the Louis B. Sudler Prize in the Arts, pianist Bethel Balge has performed in Germany, including at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, in Russia as soloist with the Voronezh Philharmonic, as well as in various American venues.  Balge's "highly concentrated, technically secure and captivating interpretation" of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit attracted notice from a reviewer at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung after a performance at the Alte Oper.  She is founding Artistic Director of the ProMusica Minnesota Chamber Music Series and of the ProMusica Minnesota Chamber Music Festival. As a doctoral student of Lydia Artymiw, Balge has performed in Minnesota Public Radio’s live broadcast of the Bach Birthday Bash. Her ProMusica Minnesota performances have been featured numerous times on American Public Media’s program Performance Today. Recently she has taken her performances on the road, performing around Minnesota.

In 2020 Balge became Executive Director of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.

Balge received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota under Lydia Artymiw in 2014. Previously she received a Diplom degree from the University of Frankfurt's Hochschule fuer Musik in Germany. She has also received a Master of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin under Howard Karp and graduated from Michigan State University, where she received a Bachelor of Music degree under Van Cliburn gold prize winner Ralph Votapek. She has taught piano, music history, and piano pedagogy courses at Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato, MN) and at Martin Luther College (New Ulm, MN). Recently she completed the League of American Orchestra’s Essentials in Orchestra Management course from the Juilliard School of Music.