New music violist/improviser/composer Heather Bentley has dedicated herself to chamber music and creative music, as a performer, composer and educator. She is co-Artistic Director of Kin of the Moon, a 501(c)3 not for profit corporation located in Seattle. Kin of the Moon was founded by a trio of performer/improviser/composers who have created a resonant space where their individual musical inspirations are amplified by the vast possibilities that collaboration fosters. Her KOTM partners are flutist/composer Leanna Keith and vocalist/composer Kaley Lane Eaton. Their debut album "Funeral Sentences for Damaged Cells" composed by Kaley Lane Eaton, with ultra soprano Emily Thorner, will be released in Fall 2019.

Heather also performs on an electric seven string violin (affectionately referred to as The Beast). Her electronic pedal board is put to good use with her trio CHA with Carol J. Levin, electric harp, and Amelia Love Clearheart, spontaneous poet, vocalist, dancer, and electronics artist.

As a member of Trio Pardalote, she  premiered numerous new works alongside classic chamber repertoire, highlighted by their longrunning project Club Shostakovich, which traversed 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 served for many years as Director of Summer at Cornish's chamber music program for teens. She’s currently a faculty member at the Lakeside School in Seattle. In 2018 she became Cornish College of the Arts' Viola Instructor.

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. Her symphonic work, LANIAKEA (Immeasurable Heavens) for Stephen Hawking and Sun Ra, was commissioned and premiered by the Thalia Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Pollard White, conductor, in 2019.

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.