Benjamin Hochman

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. 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. Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman’s musical foundation was laid in his teenage years. Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music and Goode at the Mannes School of Music proved defining influences. At the invitation of Uchida, he spent three formative summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. At 24, Hochman debuted as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall conducted by Zukerman. Orchestral appearances followed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphonies, and Prague Philharmonia under conductors including Noseda, Pinnock, Robertson, and 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. In 2015, Hochman developed an auto-immune condition affecting his left hand. He decided to pursue his longstanding interest in conducting, studying with Gilbert at Juilliard where he was granted the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award. He assisted Langrée, Järvi, and De Waart and created 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 followed. Fully recovered, Hochman re-emerged as pianist in 2018. He recorded Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24, playing and directing the English Chamber Orchestra (Avie Records). He presented the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv, performed Beethoven sonatas for Barenboim as part of a filmed workshop at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and played both Beethoven and Kurtág for Kurtág himself at the Budapest Music Centre. Hochman is a Steinway Artist and a resident of Berlin, where he is a Lecturer at Bard College Berlin.