Classical Music
Founded in 2012 at The Betsy Hotel, The Miami Beach Classical Music Festival (MBCMF) has become an important regional cultural asset. The Betsy awards one month-long residency annually in The Betsy Writer’s Room and numerous short term residencies throughout the year. The Betsy also partners with MBCMF to present pop-up opera performances on the terrace of The Hotel monthly in partnership with the City of Miami Beach Culture Crawl - to introduce locals and travelers to operatic music.
Dranoff 2 Pianos and its youth-centered program Piano Slam are two longterm Betsy Writer’s Room partners. Since 2010, we’ve hosted myriad composers and pianists to support Dranoff’s mission and vision – to bring music to youth and to advocate for the power and import of two-piano music. This includes an event held during Memorial weekend, 2018, featuring commentary by Alberto Carvalho, former Superintendent of Schools, MIami Dade County.
Watch Memorial Weekend Video 2018:
Since 2010, The Amernet String Quartet has played more performances at The Betsy Hotel than any other classical music organization. In 2017, we kicked off a long-term partnership to present The (New) Beethoven Quartets by composer Jeffery L. Briggs. This project will culminate in 2025 with a recording of the project, followed by a worldwide release.
Watch a video of the Amernet Quartet playing Pathetique, one of the (New) Beethoven Quartets:
New Music Miami is a longtime partner of The Betsy Writers Room, as the official place for respite for Dr. Orlando Garcia’s noted New Music Miami ISCM Festival, presented annually by FIU Wertheim School of Music and Performing Arts. The NMM festival brings in key experimental composers and performers for a spring-time program in various regional venues, and several new music luminaries are hosted each year for the Festival - in The Betsy Writer’s Room.
The Betsy Arts team created a youth musical arts festival in partnership with leading industry a cappella artists, Ben Bram, Rob Dietz, Shams Amed, India Carney, Jessie Louise Mark and Alex Green. Coming off their experiences working with major tv and movie programming that championed the art form of ‘classical’ a cappella, we recognized the dearth of ‘unaccompanied choral singing’ in the Miami Dade Schools and set out to resolve that issue. In residencies over a period of FIVE years, it was mission accomplished - with the creation of active a cappella programs across Miami Dade County. In partnership with the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami Beach Community Church, and the Colony Theater, we presented full weekend workshop and performance programs that engaged choral singers - from middle school through college. To mentor the younger students, collegiate students came to Miami from all over the Country to compete for spots in a professional showcase, with coaching by Betsy artists in residence, who came to town from Los Angeles.
Hear vocalist India Carney at The Betsy’s A Cappella Festival: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=766168373586476
Hear Ben Bram (multiple grammy winner) talk about this experience: