Betty Bley
Director, Clarinet Ensemble - interim

Betty Bley is a Vandoren Artist-Clinician and is the Principal Clarinetist with The Loudoun Symphony Orchestra and the OneWorld Symphonic Festival Orchestra. She also performs regularly with The Pro Arté Chamber Orchestra of Greater Washington, The Virginia Grand Military Band, and The Washington Sinfonietta. She maintains a large private studio and works throughout Northern Virginia as an adjudicator, clinician, masterclass instructor, clarinet sectional coach, and freelance musician.

Ms. Bley’s students are routinely selected as principal players in local youth orchestras, youth wind programs, All-District Bands, Senior Regional Orchestras, and the Virginia All-State Bands and Orchestras on all types of clarinet including Bb Soprano, Eb Soprano, Bass Clarinet, Contra Alto Clarinet and Contra Bass Clarinet. Many of Ms. Bley’s students have been selected to the NAfME All-National Honor Band and the Music For All Honor Band of America. One of her students was the Woodwind Division Winner in the nation-wide SmartMusic Bumblebee Competition. Two of her students were among six finalists in the 2016 Sidney Forrest Clarinet Competition at Catholic University, and one of them was awarded the top prize. In 2019, Ms. Bley’s students were selected as Principal Clarinet in both the Virginia All-State Orchestra and the top Virginia All-State Band. In 2020, two of her students were selected to the All-State Orchestra (including Principal Clarinet), and three of her students were selected to the All-State Bands.

Ms. Bley holds a MMA in Clarinet Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory, a MS in Management Information Systems from the George Washington University, a BA in Music and a BS in Psychology from the College of William & Mary, and attended the University of Michigan School of Music at Interlochen. During winter breaks, she performs as a soloist at the Bruges Conservatory in Belgium, where she received a Clarinetissimo Talent Award for her “outstanding performances and high artistic level.”

In October of 2018, Ms. Bley was a featured soloist at the American Single Reed Summit, where she performed the world premiere of Simon Proctor’s “Reedevelopment” for Clarinet and Piano. She co-authored an article on clarinet pedagogy that appeared in the March 2019 issue of “The Clarinet,” the journal of the International Clarinet Association.

Ms. Bley is the editor of clarinet music for the Virginia Band & Orchestra Directors Association, grading and maintaining a database of over 4,000 solo and ensemble works for clarinet. For four weeks each summer, she teaches clarinet technique to 135 beginning through 9th grade students at the Vienna Band Camp, and she is the clarinet instructor at the Western Loudoun Band Camp.

Ms. Bley’s teachers include Patti Carlson of the Virginia Symphony; Paul Cigan, Larry Bocaner and William Wright of the National Symphony Orchestra; Barbara Duman of Reston; Sidney Forrest of the Peabody Conservatory of Music; and Garrick Zoeter of Shenandoah Conservatory.