Professional violinist Teo Benson, son of Coupeville resident Libby Roberts, recently spent a week in  Guadalajara, Mexico teaching faculty and students of Universidad Autonoma of Guadalajara Orchestra.

Benson also performed two Bach solo violin concertos with the orchestra in the Capilla Tolsa of the Cabanas Cultural Institute, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in downtown Guadalajara.

“I was fortunate to attend this excellent and very moving performance, which was extremely well-received by the audience,” Roberts said.

Now the university wants to establish an ongoing relationship with Benson to continue his visits to teach and perform in Guadalajara.

“He is both honored and excited about this new relationship,” Roberts said of her son.

Benson works as a lead instructor at the Young Strings Project Outreach, begun by his mother. Through a grant from the Dreyfus Foundation, Benson is able to provide free violin instruction to disadvantaged children in Seattle and on Whidbey Island. He also teaches full-time in Seattle and runs the Halcyon School of Music.

Roberts said she and her son have been traveling to Chacala, Mexico, a small resort town north of Puerto Vallarta, for the past few years, vacationing there as well as performing a benefit concert each year to help raise funds for the local elementary school.

Benson began his study of the violin on Whidbey Island with Island Strings teacher Linda Good and was a member of the Everett Youth Symphony in his days on the island.

Benson is a member of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra. He also plays with a string quartet, a jazz-funk quartet and a folk-rock band, all of which play in Seattle and occasionally elsewhere.