Michael Nathaniel Hersch (born June 25, 1971) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

. He currently serves as faculty at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, where he completed his own studies in music composition. The New York Times has commented that he writes "extraordinarily communicative music" and that "Mr. Hersch's music speaks for itself eloquently".

Biography

Early life and musical education

Born in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and raised in

Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, and a principal city of both Northern Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Rest ...

, Hersch was introduced to classical music at the age of 18 by his younger brother Jamie, who showed him a videotape of

Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...

conducting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. He began his studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore with Morris Cotel. In 1995 Hersch studied at the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

, where he worked with Albert Leman and

Roman Ledenev Roman Semenovich Ledenev (December 4, 1930 - August 15, 2019) was a Soviet and Russian composer and music teacher, professor at the Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a hig ...

. That same year he also worked with

John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. With over 100 compositions, he has won accolades including a Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and a ...

John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer and academic. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harbison and Janet German Harbison. The Harbisons ...

, and

George Rochberg George Rochberg (July 5, 1918May 29, 2005) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serialism, serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the technique after his teenage son died in 1964, saying it had proved inadequate to expres ...

at a program for young composers. Hersch then returned to Peabody for graduate studies, graduating in 1997 with a Master of Arts. He returned to Peabody in 2006, where he currently teaches composition. Until 2019, he was the Chair of the composition department.

Early recognition

His first success came when

Marin Alsop Marin Alsop (; born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor. She is the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate of the Baltimor ...

selected Hersch's ''Elegy'' as winner of the American Composers Prize, and conducted it at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

in New York in 1997. That year also saw Hersch awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in Music Composition. He has also been a fellow at the

Tanglewood Music Center The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops. The center operates as a part of the Tanglew ...

, where he studied under Christopher Rouse, the Norfolk Festival for Contemporary Music, and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. In 2000, Hersch was awarded the Rome Prize, in 2001 the Berlin Prize. While in Europe Hersch worked with

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

and

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...

. Other honors include the Charles Ives Scholarship (1996) and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship (2006) from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. Hersch's earliest recordings appeared on the Vanguard Classics label, the first released in 2003, with performances by the composer and the String Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic. This was followed by two other Vanguard discs. The second, with Hersch performing his own work in addition to music of

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm (; 13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer of contemporary classical music and an academic teacher based in Karlsruhe. He was an influential post-war European composer, as "one of the most original and independent mus ...

, and

Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...

, was selected by

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

and Newsday as among the notable recordings of 2004-05. In 2007, Hersch's multi-hour piano cycle, ''The Vanishing Pavilions'' (2005), with the composer at the keyboard was released. David Patrick Stearns of

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

wrote on the October 14, 2006 premiere of the work given by the composer.

Music

Described by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

as "viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music … claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity", Hersch's work "marries a volcanic New World energy to a deeply skeptical, often angst-ridden spiritual climate." (Andrew Clark,

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

) In 2014, Hersch's first work for the stage, ''On the Threshold of Winter'' (2012), premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Fishman Space by the NUNC ensemble (Miranda Cuckson, director) with Ah Young Hong as the soloist. The opera, about terminal illness, is a reaction to the passing of one of Hersch's closest friends in 2009, as well as the composer's own diagnosis of cancer several years earlier. Its text comes from the deathbed poems of Romanian writer

Marin Sorescu Marin Sorescu (; 29 February 1936 – 8 December 1996) was a Romanian poet, playwright, and novelist. His works were translated into more than 20 countries, and the total number of his books that were published abroad rises up to 60 books. He h ...

. Hersch has written a number of pieces premiered by Hong, including his one-act opera ''POPPEA'' (2019) created alongside librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, which premiered in at the Festival ZeitRäume Basel and the Wien Modern Festival in 2021. The opera is a continuation of the story of the Roman Empress Poppea, picking up where

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

's L'incornazione di Poppea ended. In recent years, a frequent collaborator has been violinist

Patricia Kopatchinskaja Patricia Kopatchinskaja (born March 1977) is a Moldovan-Austrian-Swiss violinist. Biography Early life Kopatchinskaja was born in Chișinău, in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Moldova). She comes from a family of musicians. H ...

. The violinist has commissioned several works from Hersch, including his Violin Concerto, which she premiered with the

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) is an American chamber orchestra based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Its principal concert venue is the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. In collaboration with five artistic partners, the orchestra's musi ...

in 2015. It was recently announced that he will be writing a new work for her in 2018-19 to be premiered with

Camerata Bern Located in Bern, Switzerland, the Camerata Bern was founded in 1963 as a conductorless, flexible chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionall ...

. Other collaborations include those with Dutch contemporary music group Ensemble Klang, violinist Miranda Cuckson, and the

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (founded in 1972) is a classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. They have won several Grammy Awards, and are known for their collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a conductor, i ...

. Hersch's more recent music has been characterized as increasingly "spare, intense, fiercely inward-turning."

Piano performance

A highly regarded pianist, Hersch has performed throughout the U.S. and internationally. Though he appears in public infrequently, he commands a wide repertoire from Josquin to Boulez. Since 2000, he has primarily focused on performances of his own music.

Selected works

;Orchestral *''Elegy'' for string orchestra (1993) *Symphony No. 1 (1998); commissioned and performed as part of the

Dallas Symphony Orchestra The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Dallas, Texas. Its principal performing venue is the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in the Arts District, Dallas, Arts District of downtown Dallas. History The orchestra tr ...

's centennial season, Alan Gilbert conducting *''Ashes of Memory'' (1999); premiered by the

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra is resident at Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. Since 2008, the orchestra's music director is Manfred Ho ...

Mariss Jansons Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 1 December 2019) was a Latvian Conducting, conductor, best known for his interpretations of Gustav Mahler, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Strauss, and Russian composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, ...

conducting *Symphony No. 2 (2001); commission by the Pittsburgh Symphony and

*''Fracta'' (2002); commission by the Pittsburgh Symphony *''Variations on a Theme of Hugo Wolf'' for chamber orchestra (or full orchestra) (2004) *''Arraché'' (2004); commission by the

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, ...

*Symphony No. 3 (2009); commission by the

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is an annual Festival dedicated to contemporary symphonic music by living composers. The music director since 2017 has been Cristian Măcelaru. According to Jesse Rosen, CEO of the League of American Orc ...

*''end stages'' (2016) ;Concertante *Piano Concerto (2002); premiered by

Garrick Ohlsson Garrick Olaf Ohlsson (born April 3, 1948) is an American classical pianist. In 1970 Ohlsson became the first, and remains the only, competitor from the United States to win the gold medal awarded by the International Chopin Piano Competition, at ...

and a co-commission of the Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Oregon symphonies *''Night Pieces'' for trumpet and orchestra (2010) *''along the ravines'' for piano and orchestra (2010) *''a sheltered corner'' for horn and orchestra (2011) *''Black Untitled'' for trombone and ensemble (2013) *Violin Concerto (2015) ;Opera *''On the Threshold of Winter'' (2012) *''POPPEA'' (2019) ;Chamber *Trio for violin, clarinet and piano (1995) *''Two Pieces'' for cello and piano (2000) *''Octet for Strings'' for 4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos (2001); commission by Boris Pergamenschikow and the

Kronberg Academy The Kronberg Academy is a Private university, private music school for string instrumentalists based in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany. Founded in 1993 by Raimund Trenkler, the academy trains a select group of young musicians who have the potential ...

, premiered at the Schloss Neuhardenberg Festival in Berlin *''the wreckage of flowers: twenty-one pieces after poetry and prose of

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz ( , , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish language, Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the ...

'', Sonata for violin and piano (2003); commission by

Midori Midori (みどり, ミドリ, , , ) is the Japanese word for "green" and may refer to: Places * Midori, Gunma * Midori-ku, Chiba * Midori-ku, Nagoya * Midori-ku, Sagamihara * Midori-ku, Saitama * Midori-ku, Yokohama People Given name * M ...

*''Variations on a Poem'' for piano, violin and cello (2003); commission by Sequenza *''Last Autumn'' for horn and cello (2008) *''Images from a Closed Ward'' for string quartet (2010), commissioned and then recorded by the Blair Quartet (2014) a revised version was recorded the FLUX Quartet (2018) *''Zwischen Leben und Tod: twenty-two pieces after images by Peter Weiss'' for violin and piano (2013) *''Carrion-Miles to Purgatory: thirteen pieces after texts of

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

'' for violin and cello (2015); commission by Hans Kindler Foundation Trust Fund in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

;Solo instrumental *Sonata No.1 for unaccompanied cello (1994) *Sonata No. 2 for unaccompanied cello (2000); written for American cellist Daniel Gaisford *''Recordatio'' for piano (2003) *''Milosz Fragments'' for violin (2004) *''Five Fragments'' for violin (2004) *''The Vanishing Pavilions'' for piano (2005); work after poetry of Christopher Middleton *''Caelum Dedecoratum'' for double bass (2006); originally written for cello, then withdrawn, then adapted for double bass for bassist Jeffrey Weisner *''Fourteen Pieces'' for violin (2007) *''Tenebrae'' for piano (2010) *''in the snowy margins'' for violin (2010) *''Two Lullabies'' for piano (2011) *''of ages manifest'' for alto saxophone (2012) *''November Portrait'' for unaccompanied banjo (2012) *''Of Sorrow Born: Seven Elegies'' for violin (2014) *''the weather and landscape are on our side'' for violin (2015) ;Vocal *''Two Songs'' for soprano and piano (1993) *''Domicilium: a song cycle after poems of Thomas Hardy'' for baritone and piano (2010) *''How Far the Cradle'' for soprano and piano (2012) *''a breath upwards'' for soprano, clarinet, horn, and viola (2014) *''a tower in air'' for soprano and horn (2015) *''cortex and ankle'' for soprano and ensemble (2016) *''I hope we get a chance to visit soon'' for two sopranos and ensemble (2018) *''anonymous beneath the lemon trees'' for soprano and ensemble (2020) *''one step to the next, worlds ending'' (2022) ;Choral *''From Ecclesiastes'' for unaccompanied mixed chorus (1997)

Audio recording

''the wreckage of flowers'' - Works for Violin *Label: Vanguard Classics (MC-105) *Miranda Cuckson, violin; Blair McMillen, piano *Release Date: 2010 *includes ''Five Fragments'', ''Fourteen Pieces after texts of Primo Levi'', and ''the wreckage of flowers: 21 pieces after poetry and prose of Czeslaw Milosz'' Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 for Unaccompanied Cello *Label: Vanguard Classics (MCS-CD-104) *Daniel Gaisford, cello *Release Date: 2009 *Review: by Vivien Schweitzer in ''

'' The Vanishing Pavilions *Label: Vanguard Classics / Musical Concepts (MC-101) -CD Box Set*Michael Hersch, piano *Release Date: 2007 *Review: by Steve Hicken in sequenza21 Chamber Music *Label: Vanguard Classics (ATM-CD-1240) *String Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic; Michael Hersch, piano *Release Date: 2003 *Review: by Andrew Druckenbrod in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Hersch – Josquin – Rihm – Feldman *Label: Vanguard Classics (ATM-CD-1558) *Michael Hersch, piano; Daniel Gaisford, cello *Release Date: 2004 *Review: by Tim Page in The Washington Post Orchestral Works *Label:

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

8.559281 *Marin Alsop/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra *Release Date: 2006 *Review: by Andrew Clark in Financial TimesAndrew Clark, CD review

''Financial Times'', January 13, 2007.

References

External links

Michael Hersch web site

Michael Hersch YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hersch, Michael 1971 births 21st-century American classical composers American male classical composers Living people Musicians from Virginia Peabody Institute alumni Peabody Institute faculty People from Reston, Virginia Berlin Prize recipients American pianists American male pianists 21st-century American male musicians Moscow Conservatory alumni