Biography
Linda Benoit is a violist in the Des Moines Symphony. She is also a member of the Swan Quartet and is one of the founders of the Vivo Chamber Players. She is the principal violist in the Simpson College Community Orchestra, an ensemble for which she is also the strings personnel manager. She recently retired from the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra after nearly twenty years of service.
Ms. Benoit maintains a large violin/viola studio comprised of students of all ages and teaches the String Methods course at Simpson College. Before moving to Iowa, she maintained private studios in Ithaca, New York, Manchester, England, Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio.
At the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, she helped to establish a strings preparatory school and a teacher certification program — a program which marries Kodaly, Dalcroze, and Suzuki teaching techniques. She also conducted the Manchester Junior Youth Symphony.
Ms. Benoit headed the theory program at the University of Texas String Project during her graduate study at the University of Texas at Austin. She introduced Kodaly concepts into the String Project’s curriculum. While in Texas, she also served as the interim conductor of orchestras of the Georgetown String Project at Georgetown University.
After receiving her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Conservatory of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, she was a Strings Specialist in the Columbus City Schools. She also taught Kodaly/theory classes for the Suzuki program in the preparatory school at Capital University.
Her viola teachers include Alan Freeborn, Francis Bundra, Raymond Sidoti, and Andrew Lisko.