About Benjamin Hochman

"Classical music doesn't get better than this"- The New York Times

In all roles, from soloist to chamber musician to conductor, Benjamin Hochman regards music as vital and essential. Composers, fellow musicians, orchestras and audiences recognize his deep commitment to insightful programming and performances of quality.

 

A promising start

Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman’s musical foundation is laid in his teenage years. Claude Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music and Richard Goode at the Mannes School of Music prove defining influences. At the invitation of Mitsuko Uchida, he spends three formative summers at the Marlboro Music Festival.

 

Pianist on the international stage

At 24, Hochman debuts as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. Orchestral appearances follow with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphonies, and Prague Philharmonia under conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, David Robertson, and John Storgårds.

 

A winner of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hochman performs at venues and festivals across the globe, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Germany’s Klavierfestival Ruhr and Lucerne and Verbier festivals in Switzerland.

 

The conductor emerges

In 2015, Hochman developes an auto-immune condition affecting his left hand. He decides to pursue his longstanding interest in conducting, studying with Gilbert at Juilliard where he is granted the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award. He assists Louis Langrée, Paavo Järvi, and Edo De Waart and creates the Roosevelt Island Orchestra, consisting of some of New York’s finest orchestral and chamber musicians alongside promising young talent from top conservatories. Invitations to conduct the orchestras of Santa Fe Pro Musica, Orlando, and The Orchestra Now at Bard New York follow.

 

Recordings and future engagements

Fully recovered, Hochman re-emerges as pianist in 2018. He records Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24, playing and directing the English Chamber Orchestra (Avie Records). He presents the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv, performs Beethoven sonatas for Daniel Barenboim as part of a filmed workshop at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and plays both Beethoven and Kurtág for Kurtág himself at the Budapest Music Centre.

 

Highlights of 2022-2023 include Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Schubert’s Trout Quintet at the Schubertiade Festival in Austria with the Emerson String Quartet and Dominik Wagner, and performances with cellist Zlatomir Fung at Wigmore Hall, London and across North America. He will conduct Beethoven and Schumann with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony in Connecticut and Kurtág at Bard New York.

 

Hochman is a Steinway Artist and a resident of Berlin, where he is a Lecturer at Bard College Berlin.