About
‘Classical music doesn't get better than this’ — The New York Times.
In all roles, from orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician to conductor, Benjamin Hochman regards music as vital and essential. Composers, fellow musicians, orchestras and audiences alike recognize his deep commitment to insightful programming and performances of quality.
Recent and upcoming highlights include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Rheinische Staatsphilharmonie conducted by Benjamin Shwartz and conducting engagements with the Szeged Symphony and the Orlando Philharmonic. He presents solo recitals in Paris, Berlin, and Hitzacker; chamber music at Tanglewood and Washington, D.C.’s Dumbarton Oaks; and duo recitals with violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley in Berlin and Munich. With the Curtis Institute of Music, he tours to the Konzerthaus Berlin, Die Glocke Bremen, the Royal Palace in Stockholm, and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He curates Signs, Games, and Messages, the Kurtág Festival at Bard College, New York, where he has served as Artistic Director since 2022.
Hochman’s latest recording, Resonance (Avie Records, November 2024), features Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Op. 109 and 110, George Benjamin’s Shadowlines, and works by Josquin des Prez and John Dowland. Gramophone praised his “subtle timbral palette and keen ear for texture,” noting how “he artfully brings out the aesthetic overlaps among these works.” Earlier releases include Homage to Schubert and Variations, the latter named a New York Times “Best Recording of the Year.” He has also recorded for Artek, Bridge, and Avi.
Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman’s musical foundation was shaped as a teenager in masterclasses with Murray Perahia and Leon Fleisher, and later by Claude Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music and Richard Goode at the Mannes School of Music. At Mitsuko Uchida’s invitation, he spent three formative summers at the Marlboro Music Festival.
At 24 he made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall conducted by Pinchas Zukerman, launching an international career that has included appearances with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphonies, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and Prague Philharmonia. He has performed under conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, David Robertson, John Storgårds, and Joshua Weilerstein.
A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hochman has also received awards from the Verbier Festival and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. He has performed at major venues worldwide, among them London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the Louvre in Paris; in North America at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and 92NY in New York, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Vancouver Recital Society; and in Asia at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. Festival appearances include the Klavierfestival Ruhr, Lucerne Festival, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Ravinia, Santa Fe, and Marlboro.
In 2015 Hochman developed an autoimmune condition affecting his left hand, which led him to pursue his longstanding interest in conducting. At Juilliard he studied with Alan Gilbert, receiving the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award. Soon after, he conducted the orchestras of Santa Fe Pro Musica, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and The Orchestra Now at Bard College.
Fully recovered, he returned to the piano in 2018, recording Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24 as pianist and director with the English Chamber Orchestra (Avie Records). He went on to present the complete Mozart Sonatas at Bard, perform Beethoven sonatas for Daniel Barenboim at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and play both Beethoven and Kurtág for Kurtág himself at the Budapest Music Centre.
Hochman is a Steinway Artist. He lives in Berlin, where he teaches at Bard College Berlin.
August 2025