PERFORMER
Elizabeth Ann Reed holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from Boston University’s School for the Arts. Her training started with her mother, Irene Reed, and continued with Vera Gorovitz through high school. At Boston University her principal teacher was Edith Stearns, Chair of the Piano Department. Betty is a champion of contemporary music ever since her studies at Boston University, premiering faculty compositions and performing in ensembles. In Theodore Antoniou’s Contemporary Collegium, she performed complex pieces by George Crumb for prepared piano.
She pursued post-graduate studies with Gilbert Schuchter at the Internationale Hochschule für Musik in Salzburg, Austria, on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship, and with Anthony DiBonaventura, attending his Summer Piano Institute at Colby College. She has performed solo, ensemble and collaborative recitals as a faculty member of The New School of Music, South Shore Conservatory, and Brookline Music School. For concert information contact: betty@bettyreedpiano.com
The REED SISTERS
Elizabeth and Lydia have been performing together since 1983. The two sisters grew up in a musical family where playing and listening to music was a central part of their childhood. Both Betty and Lydia graduated from Boston University with Bachelor and Masters degrees in Piano Performance. Their principal teachers included Edith Stearns and Anthony diBonaventura.
“. . .the [Reed] sisters’ four hands attack the keys with such clarity, precision, and delicacy that not a single note is obscured. The melodic passages fly brilliantly. . . the legato passages are liquid and bright; contrasts from passage to passage are executed seamlessly.” – Jane Hunt, Concord Sunday Monitor
As duo-pianists they have been featured artists in concert series throughout New England including First Night in Concord and Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the grand opening of New Hampshire’s Concord City Auditorium, and a performance for the the First Lady of Portugal. The Reed Sisters have participated in faculty recitals at Brookline Music School, Concord Community Music School and The New School of Music. Their concerts have been headliners in library concert series for Andover, Newton, Norwell, Plymouth and others. For several years they collaborated with dance groups, Petit Papillon and Moving West Repertory Dance Theatre.
“The most striking aspect is the strength and brilliance that the Reeds achieve. . .” – Taylor McNeil, Bostonia
DOUBLE TROUBLE RELEASES REINECKE’S NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
In 1994, the Reed Sisters released their first recording on their own record label, Double Trouble Records, of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Carl Reinecke, a different version of the well-known story, composed years before Tchaikovsky’s ballet. It was broadcast on national and local radio. Children have loved the recording and the Reed Sisters’ family concert performances of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King for years. Purchase options will soon be available through CDBABY.
“New recording of old fairy tale hits the spot”
– Boston Sunday Globe
“It was neat how you could hear the story in the music”
-Young audience member
“My favorite part was the battle!”
-Young audience member
“Awesome!” “Buttaful!!” “Great!”
-Young audience members
“The performers played together so well. It was like one person with twenty fingers!”
– Young audience member
ALFRED PUBLISHING COMPANY RELEASES TCHAIKOVSKY’S NUTCRACKER SUITE
In August of 1996 the Alfred Publishing Company asked the Reed Sisters to record the The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, arranged for solo piano and four hands. This recording is distributed nationally and internationally. Click HERE for purchase options.
“ . . .music that has acquired its own set of baggage over the years (as has, for instance, the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”) breaks free with freshness and vivacity.”
– Taylor McNeil, Bostonia
Betty and Lydia are committed to performing modern music and commissioned a two-piano piece, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards by Thomas Oboe Lee. Most recently the Reed Sisters have performed in NEPTA (New England Piano Teachers Association) Scholarship Benefit Recitals and the Powers Music School 50th year Anniversary Gala Concert. The Reed Sisters can be contacted at betty@bettyreedpiano.com