Benjamin Hochman is a musician of exceptional versatility who regularly performs as orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and, in recent years, as conductor. His wide range of partners and projects is matched by his curiosity, focus, and ability to communicate deeply with audiences.
Since his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic, Hochman has enjoyed an international performing career, appearing as soloist with the New York, Los Angeles, and Prague Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Jerusalem Symphonies under conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, John Storgårds, Joshua Weilerstein, and Pinchas Zukerman. A winner of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, he performs at venues including Konzerthaus Wien, Berlin Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Louvre in Paris, Liszt Academy in Budapest, Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, New York’s 92NY, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Festival highlights include IMS Prussia Cove, Israel Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Lucerne, Marlboro, Spoleto, and Verbier.
In the 2023-2024 season, Hochman’s engagements include Debussy’s four-hand Petite Suite for Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Boston Philharmonic, and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony arranged for piano quintet with Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. Other collaborations include Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat with the Rosamunde Quartet for People’s Symphony Concerts, Schubert and Brahms with violinist Benjamin Bowman for Kosciuszko Foundation’s Lyric Chamber Music, and a U.S. tour with cellist Zlatomir Fung featuring works by Schumann, Marshall Estrin, Britten and Tsintsadze. Hochman returns to Bard College in New York to conduct Kurtág’s Messages of the Late Miss R Troussova, and also conducts the world premiere of Gilad Cohen’s Concerto for Harp, String, and Horn with Roosevelt Island Orchestra. International engagements include an all-Mozart program at Kronberg Academy in Taunus, Germany; and Schumann and Chausson with Berlin’s Deutsche Symphonic Orchestra.
Highlights of the 2022-2023 season included performances at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Eden-Tamir Music Center in Jerusalem, and Symphony Pro Musica in Boston. He conducted and performed as soloist with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony in Connecticut, and conducted Kurtág at Bard in New York. Chamber music collaborations of last season included performances at the Schubertiade Festival in Austria with the Emerson String Quartet and Dominik Wagner, and with an array of colleagues at the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Seattle Series, the Deutsches Symphonic Orchestra chamber series in Berlin, and in Wesserling, France. He toured North America and Europe with cellist Zlatomir Fung, including performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, University of Chicago, and Vancouver Recital Society.
Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Claude Frank, and the Mannes College of Music, where he studied with Richard Goode. His studies were supported by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
A graduate of The Juilliard School’s conducting program, where he received the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award, Hochman trained under Alan Gilbert from 2016-2018. Hochman was shaped by his early experiences at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, as a member of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at Isaac Stern’s Chamber Music Encounters.
In 2019, Hochman recorded Mozart Piano Concertos No. 17 and No. 24, playing and directing the English Chamber Orchestra (Avie Records). Hochman’s first two recordings for Avie Records were Homage to Schubert (works by Schubert, Kurtág, and Widmann) and Variations (works by Knussen, Berio, Lieberson, Benjamin, and Brahms), selected by The New York Times as one of the best recordings of 2015.
His chamber music partners have included the Casals, Jerusalem, and Tokyo Quartets, Lisa Batishvili, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Jonathan Biss, Jaime Laredo, Miklós Perényi, and David Soyer. Conducting highlights include the English Chamber Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now at Bard Music Festival, and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Benjamin Hochman is currently a Lecturer at Bard College Berlin. He is a Steinway Artist and his website is www.benjaminhochman.com.