YCM Founder and Director, Susan Bates, honored by Klein String Competition
Picture courtesy of Music at Kohl Mansion
At the annual Klein String Competition gala, Susan Bates was honored for her lifelong commitment to music education as this year’s Art Champion.
A Santa Clara native, Bates was a member of the viola section at the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for over 30 years. She also has taught at San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Chamber Music Program (1983-2000), SFCM’s Pre-Collegiate Division (1982-2019), and at various summer workshops and festival academies. As a chamber musician, she was for seven years the violist of San Jose State’s faculty ensemble and the San Jose String Quartet, which gave the premiere of Lou Harrison’s Quartet Set (1978). Bates also recorded Harrison's Threnody for Carlos Chavez for Solo Viola (1979) with Gamelan Sekar Kembar for CRI.