The Musicians

Valerie Bengal has lived and worked in the Monterey Bay Area since 1981 and joined the Monterey Symphony in 2000. She has also been a member of Sacramento Symphony, Santa Cruz County Symphony, Monterey Bay Symphony, Bayshore Lyric Opera, and Orchestre de la Cathédrale de Versailles. She is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University. In addition to orchestra and chamber music studies at University of California (Davis and Berkeley), her teachers have included Julius Salner, Geoffry Wharton, Maryvonne Le Dizes, Felix Khuner, and the Turtle Island String Quartet. As a freelancer, she has also participated in numerous performances with regional orchestras, local chamber ensembles, and choral groups, as well as with Ensemble La Campanella in international music festivals, and community outreach.

Valerie is also a family physician and was for many years Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, Family Medicine Residency Program, based at Natividad Medical Center, Monterey County's public safety-net hospital.  She currently works at University of California, Santa Cruz. Her principal interests are international health, integrative medicine, medical ecology and the climate crisis, social justice, and health care reform. She is the chairman of the board of directors of Capacitar International (www.capacitar.org).