Program
Zlatomir Fung and Benjamin Hochman
Zlatomir Fung, cello
Benjamin Hochman, piano
Five Pieces in Folk Style for Cello and Piano, Op. 102
ROBERT SCHUMANN (1818 - 1856)
Mit humor
Langsam
Nicht Schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen
Nicht zu rasch
Stark und markiert
Cinematheque for Cello and Piano (2022)
MARSHALL ESTRIN (B. 1996)
Fantasy
Eclogue
Variations
Scherzo
Adagio
INTERMISSION
Sonata for Cello and Piano
BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913 - 1976)
Dialogo. Allegro
Scherzo-Pizzicato. Allegretto
Elegia. Lento
Marcia. Energico
Moto perpetuo. Presto
Five Pieces in Folk Style for Cello and Piano
SULKHAN TSINTSADZE (1925 - 1991)
Arobnaya
Chonguri
Sachidao
Nana
Plyasovaya
Zlatomir Fung
The first American in four decades and youngest musician ever to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division, Zlatomir Fung is poised to become one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Astounding audiences with his boundless virtuosity and exquisite sensitivity, the 22-year-old has already proven himself to be a star among the next generation of world-class musicians. A recipient of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2022 and a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Fung's impeccable technique demonstrates a mastery of the canon and an exceptional insight into the depths of contemporary repertoire.
In the 2021-2022 season, Fung performs with orchestras and gives recitals in all corners of the world. Summer debuts include La Jolla Chamber Music Society in recital with Richard Fu, multiple programs at ChamberFest Cleveland, Bravo! Vail in a chamber music program with Joshua Bell and Shai Wosner, Aspen Music Festival in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and Rockport Chamber Music Festival in a recital with Dina Vainshtein. In the fall, he opens Ann Arbor Symphony’s season and appears twice with Iris Orchestra. He is presented by Harvard Musical Association, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, and Thomasville Entertainment Foundation before making his Carnegie Hall Weill Recital debut with pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen in a program of Romantic-era classics. He returns to Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in January for two evenings with BalletX and the Calidore Quartet to give the Philadelphia premiere of a new work by Anna Clyne and appears with several orchestras including the Kansas City and Greensboro Symphonies. He tours Italy, Russia, China, and Japan with orchestras and in recital.
In the 2020-2021 season, Fung made his Seattle Symphony debut in the orchestra’s 13th annual Celebrate Asia concert in addition to livestreams presented by University of Delaware, The Phillips Collection & Music Wooster, and Friends of Chamber Music, and many online masterclasses. In the 2019-2020 season, he returned to the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and debuted with Asheville and Aiken Symphony Orchestras. He performed at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in a joint recital with fellow Tchaikovsky Competition winners in October, following a recital at Friends of Music in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Other recitals include Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Syrinx Concerts in Toronto, The Embassy Series in Washington DC, Salon de Virtuosi and Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York City, Chamber on the Mountain in Ojai, and Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore. At the Artist Series of Sarasota, Fung performed the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven. As a chamber musician, Fung performed around the world, opening the season with IMS Prussia Cove on tour to London’s Wigmore Hall, Cornwall, Cambridge, West Sussex, and Somerset. New York City chamber music engagements included the Aspect Foundation. During the summer of 2019, Fung performed at Musique de Chambre à Giverny, a chamber music festival in northern France.
A winner of the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2017 Astral National Auditions, Fung has taken the top prizes at the 2018 Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, 2016 George Enescu International Cello Competition, 2015 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, 2014 Stulberg International String Competition, and 2014 Irving Klein International Competition. He was selected as a 2016 U.S. Presidential Scholar for the Arts and was awarded the 2016 Landgrave von Hesse Prize at the Kronberg Academy Cello Masterclasses.
Of Bulgarian-Chinese heritage, Zlatomir Fung began playing cello at age three and earned fellowships at Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, Heifetz International Music Institute, MusicAlp, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Fung studied at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy. He has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and appeared on From the Top six times. In addition to music, he enjoys cinema, reading, and blitz chess.
Benjamin Hochman
Benjamin Hochman is a musician of exceptional versatility who regularly appears in multiple guises as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In recent years he has ventured into the orchestral repertoire as a 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 under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman, 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 Symphony Orchestras under conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, John Storgårds, and Joshua Weilerstein.
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 92nd Street Y, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Festival highlights include IMS Prussia Cove, Israel Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Lucerne, Marlboro, Santa Fe, Spoleto, and Verbier.
Hochman’s recent and upcoming projects reflect the breadth of his musical activities, his imaginative approach to programming, and his ongoing relationships with several orchestras and festivals. He performed four Beethoven Piano Sonatas for Daniel Barenboim in December 2020 at the Pierre Boulez Saal as part of a filmed workshop and will return to the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in July 2022. He played Bach, George Benjamin, and Christopher Trapani (a world premiere) for an online edition of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. The Trapani and Benjamin were featured alongside works by Rebecca Saunders and Tristan Murail in a recital at Tzlil Meudcan, a new-music festival in Tel Aviv. He will complete his cycle of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv and present a world Premiere by Tamar Muskal alongside works by Brahms and Schubert at Portland State University in Oregon.
He returns to Santa Fe Pro Musica to open their 2021-22 season, conducting Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and playing Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos with Anne-Marie McDermott. He rejoins the Orlando Philharmonic and Eric Jacobsen to perform one of his favorite concertos, the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1.
Chamber music collaborations in 2021-22 include Berlin performances with Noah Bendix-Balgley, Viviane Hagner, and Yuval Herz, and collaborations with Amihai Grosz in Erfurt and Utrecht. Upcoming chamber music concerts in the US include a recital with Susie Park for The Schubert Club in Minnesota, with principal players from several major American orchestras at Strings Music Festival in Colorado, and with the Rolston Quartet at Music Mountain in Connecticut.
Hochman began conducting in 2015 as a result of his fascination with the orchestral repertoire and his collaborative approach to musicmaking. 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. He served as musical assistant to Louis Langrée, Paavo Järvi, Thierry Fischer, and Jeffrey Kahane at the Mostly Mozart festival in 2016. In 2018 he participated in the Tanglewood Conducting Seminar, where he worked with Stefan Asbury, and he has also participated in masterclasses with Fabio Luisi and David Zinman. In recent years he has conducted the English Chamber Orchestra, the Orlando Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now at Bard Music Festival, and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Hochman’s discography reflects his wide-ranging musical interests. In 2019, he recorded Mozart Piano Concertos No. 17 and No. 24, playing and directing the English Chamber Orchestra. It was released on Avie Records and received critical acclaim from Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times, among others. 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). Variations was selected by The New York Times as one of the best recordings of 2015 and was also praised by The New Yorker.
Chamber music has been a vital part of Hochman’s life, from his early life in Israel and his formative years at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music to regular appearances at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and as a member of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His chamber music partners have included the Casals, Jerusalem, and Tokyo quartets, Lisa Batishvili, Jonathan Biss, Jaime Laredo, Miklós Perényi, and David Soyer.
Hochman is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, among them the Partosh Prize awarded by the Israeli Minister of Culture, the Outstanding Pianist citation at the Verbier Academy, and the Festorazzi Award from the Curtis Institute of Music.
Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman began his piano studies with Esther Narkiss at the Conservatory of the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem and continued with private studies with Emanuel Krasovsky in Tel Aviv. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied from 1997-2001 with Claude Frank, and the Mannes College of Music, where he studied from 2001-2003 with Richard Goode. His studies were supported by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. He serves on the piano faculty of Bard College Conservatory of Music and is currently a Research Associate at Bard College Berlin. He is a Steinway Artist and his website is www.benjaminhochman.com.