Originally born in Asheville, N.C., in 1984, Noah Bendix-Balgley has seen international success as a musician.
Bendix-Balgley graduated from the Jacobs School of Music and Munich Hochschule for violin and will present a master’s guest lecture Tuesday night, followed by a concert as a soloist Wednesday in the Musical Arts Center.
Bendix-Balgley began playing the violin at the age of 4, and by the time he was 9 years old, he had played a concert for Lord ?Yehudi Menuhin in Switzerland.
Throughout the years, Bendix-Balgley has been a soloist in orchestras in France, Belgium, Italy and the U.S. From 2008 to 2011, he was the first violinist for the Munich-based Athlos String Quartet.
In 2011, he was appointed concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
He has recently joined the faculty of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music as an artist lecturer in chamber music.
This is the second lecture Bendix-Balgley has done at IU. The lecture attendees will include three to five master’s violin students and a string quartet.
“I taught a lecture two years ago,” Bendix-Balgley said. “I was here for my undergraduate studies, and it played a very important part in my education at the music school. And I’m very excited about coming back to help more current students at the Jacobs School and to see so many old friends, learning things from different ?perspectives.”
The Tuesday night lecture will focus on helping students refine their musical, as well as performing techniques.
“The lecture will be conducted in a more public setting,” he said. “A lot of students don’t get many opportunities in the public. It refines their performing styles when they get exposed to the public as much as possible. So it’s much more of an opportunity to work with students in a public setting on works that they are working on right now.”
As a professional musician, Bendix-Balgley has been described as having a very communicative and touching performing style.
He said he would work on helping students find their best talents and potentials with his teaching ?approach.
“It’s very challenging to look at each student as a violinist and a person and help them discover their best potential,” he said. “But that’s also the very fun part of it. And I’m very looking forward to see their ?improvements.”
