On Sunday, November 17, cellist Alexander Hersh looks forward to performing Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra” with Symphony Parnassus in the first concert of its 30th season.

“‘Schelomo’ is a great piece of repertoire that you grow up hearing a lot if you’re a cellist,” he said. “I’ve heard it my whole life, but I’ve never performed it with an orchestra, so this is exciting for me. It’s a fascinating work. It’s wondrously profound and very moving.”

Alexander finds playing this piece with a full orchestra to be both technically and musically fulfilling. 

“You learn a piece so much better when you play with an orchestra,” he said. “It’s so different than rehearsing with a piano, in how much more you have to project, not just volume, but your ideas. In a way, it teaches you the piece so much better because you have to be cognizant of so much more. It’s a thrilling experience.”

When he performs on the stage at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Alexander will celebrate deep family roots and a sense of music history: His father, Stefan Hersh, a violinist, and uncle, Julian Hersh, a cellist, both graduated from the conservatory where their father (and Alexander’s grandfather) Paul Hersh is currently a professor of viola and piano.

Another local connection is the composer: Bloch, a Swiss-born American whose music reflects Jewish cultural and liturgical themes, was the first artistic director for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1925-1930. He also taught at UC Berkeley from 1939 to 1952.

A 4th generation string player, Alexander traces his musical past back to his great grandfather, Ralph Hersh, who was a member of the WQXR and Stuyvesant string quartets and principal violist of the Dallas and Atlanta Symphony orchestras. His mom, Roberta, is also a professional violinist (now playing in the orchestra for “Hamilton” in Chicago); his dad performs all over and teaches at Roosevelt University.

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Playing cello since he was 5, the now-26 Alexander grew up in Chicago, where he still lives, though he travels a lot to perform, mostly in New York and Philadelphia. In September alone, he did 11 concerts; in October, six concerts. A passionate chamber musician, Alexander is co-artistic director of NEXUS Chamber Music, a collective of international artists who present a two-week chamber music festival across the city of Chicago each August.

Already considered one of the most exciting and versatile artists of his generation, Alexander has performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony and Boston Pops, and has won many top prizes at competitions  worldwide, including the 2019 Astral Artists National Auditions, National Federation of Music Clubs Biennial Young Artists Competition, New York International Artists Association Competition, Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra, Ima Hogg Competition, Schadt String Competition, Artist Concerts Series National Solo Competition, and the Luminarts Classical Music Fellowship, to name a few.

He has both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the New England Conservatory of Music and did additional master’s training in Berlin.  

Alexander comes to the Bay Area at least twice a year. While here, he looks forward to seeing friends, hanging out with his grandfather and going to the Marin County Farmers Market. And practicing, of course. “I will mostly be practicing,” he said. “I have a really busy schedule, so I’m forever cramming for the next performance.”

Maestro Stephen Paulson, artistic director of Symphony Parnassus, will lead the orchestra in a concert that also includes Beethoven’s Overture to “The Ruins of Athens” and Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4, Opus 29.

Advance tickets for Sunday’s concert at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall), 50 Oak St., San Francisco, are available now from BrownPaperTickets. (Tickets are also available at the door.) Please note: The concert starts at 2 p.m.

Alexander Hersh, cello

Guest artist Alexander Hersh performs Bloch’s “Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque” cello concerto with Symphony Parnassus on Sunday, November 17 at SF Conservatory of Music.

Having already performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony and the Boston Pops, cellist Alexander Hersh has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting and versatile talents of his generation. He has received top prizes at competitions worldwide including the: 2019 Astral Artists National Auditions, National Federation of Music Clubs Biennial Young Artists Competition, New York International Artists Association Competition, Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra, Ima Hogg, Schadt, Artist Concerts Series National Solo Competition, Luminarts Classical Music Fellowship, Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, Hellam Young Artist Competition, Boston Pops/New England Conservatory Competition, Jefferson Symphony International Young Artists Competition, Society of American Musicians, Saint Paul String Quartet, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music competition.

The Musiq3 critics of the RTBF Belgian Radio company gave Hersh’s performance at the inaugural Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition in Belgium in 2017 a rave review: “With his scenic presence and charm, Hersh has everything to become the darling of the public.”

A passionate chamber musician, Hersh has performed the complete string quartets of Béla Bartok and Alban Berg and much of the rest of the chamber music canon at music festivals worldwide including: Marlboro, Caramoor, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Music@Menlo, I-M-S Prussia Cove, Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Amsterdam Cello Biennial, Kneisel Hall, Lucerne, New York String Orchestra Seminar, Domaine Forget, and the Meadowmount School of Music.

Hersh is co-artistic director of NEXUS Chamber Music, a collective of international artists committed to stimulating interest in serious chamber music. NEXUS presents a two week chamber music festival across the city of Chicago each August, featuring new and obscure works alongside standard works of the chamber music canon. NEXUS plays to unusual and intimate venues with the mission of breaking down the barriers that often separate performers from audience members.

 A 4th generation string player, Alexander’s parents, Stefan and Roberta, are both active professional violinists. His grandfather, Paul Hersh, is professor of viola and piano at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and his great grandfather, Ralph Hersh, was a member of the WQXR and Stuyvesant String Quartets, and principal violist of the Dallas and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.

Raised in Chicago, Alexander Hersh began playing the cello at the age of 5. He studied with Steve Balderston and Hans Jørgen Jensen, and attended the Academy at the Music Institute of Chicago. Hersh received his B.M. from New England Conservatory (with academic honors) where he was a student of Laurence Lesser and recipient of the Clara M. Friedlaender Scholarship. In May of 2017, he received his M.M. from New England Conservatory where he studied under the tutelage of Paul Katz and Kim Kashkashian. Hersh was a recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe fund for studies in Berlin during the 2017 - 2018 academic year where he studied with Nicolas Altstaedt at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule for Musik Berlin. He plays a G.B. Rogeri cello on generous loan from a sponsor through Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins in Chicago, IL.

Elena Ariza, soloist

Cupertino teen to perform Dvořák concerto on March 20

The cello—beautiful but unwieldy—seems like an unusual instrument for a child to start playing when she is barely out of diapers.

But when you grow up in a musical family and they need a cellist for the piano trio, why wait?

Elena Ariza

Elena Ariza, now 17, began cello lessons when she was just 4 years old.

It turns out her mom, Nagisa, a professional pianist and piano teacher, wanted Elena to join her and Elena’s older brother Yujin, a violinist, in a trio, so Elena began lessons. She seemed to have found her instrument right away.  

“I think it really fits me,” she says. “I like the register of the instrument…I guess the cello is more like human voice. It speaks to me more.”

Elena is due to graduate in June from Menlo School in Atherton, Calif., and has been very busy this winter, flying across the country from one music school to the next for a half-dozen auditions to determine where she will advance her already impressive music career.   

On March 20 (3 p.m. at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco), she will share the stage with Symphony Parnassus to perform what she calls the “king of all cello concertos,”—the Dvořák Cello Concerto.

“I really love how it expresses everything from noble character to depression and mourning,” she said, “and how it has a lot of variation inside the concerto.”

She is thrilled to be performing with Symphony Parnassus. “It’s a really great honor to be given this opportunity,” she said. “It’s not often as a high-schooler that you get to perform solos with an orchestra.”

This is her fourth performance of the Dvořák piece.

Elena—winner of the 2015 Parnassus-San Francisco Conservatory of Music Competition—has won many other prizes, including the Music Teachers National Association’s California State Competition, Menuhin-Dowling Competition, and the Diablo Valley Orchestra and South Valley Symphony Concerto Competition. She studies cello with Eric Sung in the SFCM Pre-College Program, and plays with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.  

As a chamber musician, Elena plays in the Cambiata String Quartet, which was featured on the NPR radio program “From the Top,” and won first place in the Sacramento State Chamber Music Competition in 2015.

Elena lives in Cupertino with her parents, who emigrated from Japan in 1993 to the South Bay and have been there ever since. Her dad, Michiharu, is a software engineer, and, like his musical wife, seems to have passed down his gifts to his children: son Yujin, 21, has a computer science degree (from Columbia University) and is now studying for a master’s degree in violin performance at Julliard School of Music; Elena, in addition to her musical interests, lists computer science as her favorite subject at school. “I really enjoy coding,” she says. “It feels like a type of puzzle-solving. I get addicted when trying to figure out a glitch in a program.”

She shows equal excitement for cello playing, especially when it involves performing with an orchestra. “It’s very exhilarating,” she said. “Sitting in front of orchestra, I feel like there is this great powerhouse behind me. It’s always a great experience to collaborate with orchestra and conductor.”