PRAIRIE QUARTET
The elegant string quartet of your dreams
About Us
The Prairie Quartet's core musicians love DFW, and care about making your event music reflective of our time and place.
Becca Watson
Becca Watson is a Fort Worth native and began violin studies at the age of three. After a full-time Suzuki Method music education in her youth, she was awarded a scholarship to attend TCU and play in the TCU Symphony. Becca studied violin, Suzuki pedagogy, and viola while at TCU. In 1998, she also began teaching and has been enthusiastically instructing young students ever since.
Beginning in college, Becca had the opportunity to play fiddle with a country music band, and discovered a whole new way to use her abilities. She pursued this along with continuous work in chamber music, symphonic groups, and the wedding industry.
After meeting Matt Bethe in 2003, Becca was able to bring her chamber music skills to the forefront, and the two players have been successful ensemble musicians together ever since.
Stylistic diversity - making various styles of music sound both authentic and natural - as well as great technique and on-the-spot flexibility, are hallmarks of Becca's playing. She arranges new music for the group and can use any recording to make the perfect sound for an event.
Timothy Angel
Dr. Timothy Angel, Violin and Viola Lecturer at the University of Texas at Arlington, is a dedicated performing artist and instructor.
Most recently, Dr. Angel was invited to perform the Prokofiev Violin Concerto in D major with the New Life Symphony Orchestra. Other appearances have been as guest concertmaster for the Amarillo Symphony and the Principal Second violin chair in the Lubbock Symphony. He has also won numerous competitions including the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra National Young Artist competition in January 2015, where he performed the Glazunov Violin Concerto in a minor with the symphony the following May. Angel’s other solo engagements include works by Sarasate, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Jean Sibelius.
In the spring of 2018, Angel completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts in violin performance at Texas Tech University. There he held a prestigious position in the Graduate String Quartet, was awarded concertmaster in the University Symphony Orchestra, and was a Graduate Teaching Assistant for his instructor, Dr. John Gilbert. Additionally, during his time in Lubbock, Dr. Angel also directed the Ramirez Suzuki Violin Program at Ramirez Elementary School and worked with the Suzuki Talent Education of the Lubbock Region program
Dr. Angel has won additional awards including the American Suzuki Institute’s John and Catherine Kendall Memorial Scholarship for 2016, the CodaBow International Scholarship for 2017, and the Most Outstanding Graduate Student at University of Texas at Arlington for the 2014-2015 school year.
Iva Raykova
Iva Raykova began her musical studies in Bulgaria at the age of 4 and graduated the National Musical School “Lyubomir Pipkov”. Iva holds a BM and AD in performance from Texas Christian University, where she studied with Dr. Misha Galaganov and MM in performance from Southern Methodist University, where she was in the class of Barbara Sudweeks.
Iva is an active performer and teacher. She has appeared in festivals such as Ohio Light Opera,AIMS in Graz, Castleton Festival, Brevard Music Center and Music in the Mountains. Iva has performed as an orchestra musician with Irving Symphony, San Angelo Symphony, Plano Symphony, Waco Symphony and Oddysseus Chamber Orchestra among others.
Iva has participated in master classes with E.Goldstein, E.Eckert, M.Strauss, Hugo Wolf Quartet, Samuel Rhodes, and others.Iva has also performed as a chamber and orchestral musician in United States, Germany, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia and Bulgaria
Since 2016, Iva is a Teaching artist in the El sistema inspired program "B Sharp Youth Music" which focuses on creating social change through music and maintains a private violin/viola studio.
Matt Bethe
A native of Wichita Falls, Texas, Matt Bethe studied cello performance under Dr. Elizabeth Morrow at the University of Texas at Arlington. A two-time winner of the UTA Concerto Competition, Mr. Bethe has experience performing as a soloist; his main interest, however, remains chamber music. A co-founder of Prairie Quartet, Mr. Bethe has been a collaborator wth and coordinator for many of the top musicians in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. He has performed at the Mimir Chamber Music Festival in Fort Worth, and has been sought after as a teacher, soloist, and a recording artist in Dallas area churches, schools, and recitals. Mr. Bethe currently maintains a full teaching studio, educating the next generation of Fort Worth cellists.
