New music violist/improviser/composer Heather Bentley has dedicated herself to chamber music and creative music, as a performer, composer and educator. Her newest project is Kin of the Moon, an improvisation-centric, technology-friendly chamber music series based in Seattle, collaborating with flutist Leanna Keith and vocalist/composer Kaley Lane Eaton.

As a member of Trio Pardalote, she  premiered numerous new works alongside classic chamber repertoire. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of the ongoing project Club Shostakovich, traversing the fifteen Shostakovich String Quartets one concert at a time. A veteran of chamber orchestras, she is currently Principal Viola of the Northwest Sinfonietta and was, from 2001 – 2008, Conductor of the Northwest School Chamber Orchestra. She was a co-founder, artistic director and Principal Viola of Seattle’s conductorless chamber orchestra, the North Corner Chamber Orchestra – NOCCO, from  2014 -2017.

Also a violinist, she is Concertmaster of the improvising string orchestra “Scrape”, which features original music by jazz composer Jim Knapp and recently released its first CD “Approaching Vyones”, receiving a nomination for Earshot Jazz’s Album of the Year 2013. Scrape collaborates with artists such as Mark Taylor, Cherie Hughes, Bill Frisell, Jessika Kinney and Eyvind Kang.

Her commitment to educating young people is reflected in her work at the Seattle Conservatory of Music, where she was Director of Chamber Music from 2001 to 2010. As Conductor of the Northwest School Chamber Orchestra, she organized and led music tours to Europe (2005) and China (2008). She serves as Director of Cornish College of the Arts’ Summer String Quartet program for teens, shifting to a new music workshop in 2018 titled Fast Forward: New Music Life, co-taught with cellist Ha-Yang Kim. She’s currently an adjunct faculty member at the Lakeside School in Seattle.

In 2015, Heather collaborated with electronic composer Steve Layton on a collection of original viola and piano improvisations by Heather that were later processed, distorted, remixed and layered by Steve.  The resulting album, Meeting Point was released online in April 2015.

In January of 2015, Heather’s electro-acoustic, semi-improvised opera, The Ballad of Ishtar, was premiered in a series of sold-out workshop performances as part of the Nonsequitur Series in Seattle.  The opera explores the Babylonian goddess Ishtar’s journey to the Underworld and back and was performed by eleven improvisers/singers/instrumentalists using principals of conduction developed by the late, great Butch Morris.

Her orchestral work Hot Shop, commissioned by the Northwest Sinfonietta, premiered in April 2017 under the baton of conductor David Lockington.

Heather was a Fellow and Principal Violist at the Tanglewood Festival, and was Associate Principal of the New York String Orchestra with Alexander Schneider. She has appeared as soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra.  Chamber music appearances include the Seattle Symphony Chamber Series, Seattle Chamber Players, the Olympic Music Festival and Second City Chamber Music Series.