Curtis on Tour in Berlin, Germany
A vibrant collision of global sounds, cultures, and sonic textures
Internationally renowned cellist Gary Hoffman, the Nina and Billy Albert Chair in Cello Studies at Curtis joins some of the school’s esteemed alumni for a tour of Europe in the spring of 2025. A thrilling concert of iconic works and audience favorites, the program features one of Claude Debussy’s final compositions, the Sonata in D minor for Cello and Piano, an elegant, evocative work, at once dark, mysterious, meditative, and playfully whimsical.
Maurice Ravel’s shimmering Piano Trio in A minor follows, a dreamlike work with echoes of jazz, Javanese gamelan, and courtly Baroque dances, all leading to a splashy finale. The concert closes with Gabriel Fauré’s deeply moving Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15, widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated French chamber music works of the late 19th century.
Artists
-
Gary Hoffman Cello
Cellist Gary Hoffman gained international renown as the first North American to win the Rostropovich International Cello Competition in 1986. He has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago, London, Montréal, Toronto, San Francisco, Baltimore, and National symphony orchestras; the English, Moscow, and Los Angeles chamber orchestras; Orchestre National de France; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; the Netherlands and Rotterdam philharmonics; and the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, among many others. He has collaborated with such celebrated conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Andrew Davis, Jésus Lopez-Cobos, Kent Nagano, André Prévin, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Pinchas Zuckerman.
Mr. Hoffman performs in major recital and chamber music series throughout the world, as well as at such prestigious festivals as Ravinia, Waterloo, Marlboro, Aspen, Bath, Evian, Vancouver, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Prades, Santa Fe, Schleswig-Holstein, Stresa, Storioni, Hong Kong International, and Festival International de Colmar. Notable venues include Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Royal Concertgebouw, and the Kennedy Center. He is a frequent guest performer with the Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Brentano, and Ysaÿe string quartets; as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has premiered the concertos of Laurent Petitgirard, Joel Hoffman, Renaud Gagneux, Gil Shohat, Graciane Finzi, and Dominique Lemaître; and performed the French premiere of Elliott Carter’s Cello Concerto.
Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, Mr. Hoffman was the youngest faculty appointee in the history of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he served for eight years. He leads master classes around the world including appearances at the Ravinia Festival, Manchester International Cello Festival, Mozarteum University Salzburg, and the Kronberg Academy, where he is also closely involved with the institution’s festival and Academy Master program.
Residing in Paris, Mr. Hoffman is an active recording artist with the BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI, and Le Chant du Monde labels. He performs on a 1662 Nicolo Amati, the “ex-Leonard Rose.”
Mr. Hoffman joined the Curtis Institute of Music faculty in 2021. He also serves as master in residence for cello at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels.
-
- Date May 23, 2025
- Time 8:00 P.M.
- Location Philharmonie Berlin, Kammermusiksaal
