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.

At its final concert of the season on June 9, Symphony Parnassus will feature guest soloist Mark Inouye performing the Grace Williams Trumpet Concerto, a piece that was new to both him and to Maestro Stephen Paulson, who came across the “hauntingly beautiful concerto” on YouTube while he was searching for newer, or less-well-known works for the orchestra to perform.   

Once Paulson found the Williams’ concerto, he asked Inouye, his colleague at the San Francisco Symphony, to be the soloist. (Inouye is principal trumpet and Paulson is principal bassoon at the Symphony.)  

This is Inouye’s first performance with Parnassus, and he looks forward to working with  Paulson. “He’s a great colleague, and I’m more than happy to do this,” Inouye said. “I am flattered that he would ask me to play the concerto with his ensemble.”

Perhaps surprisingly, one of Inouye’s biggest challenges of performing the concerto is taking the center spotlight.

“I’m used to sitting in the back of the orchestra, rather than standing in front,” Inouye said. “I can play the exact same passage in the back of the orchestra. If I have to do it standing in front, well, that’s rarefied air up there.”

But he’s ready for the task at hand. “It’s always good to go outside of your box, or expand your box,” he said. “It’s a good musical challenge.”

The fact that the concerto was unknown to both Paulson and Inouye isn’t as uncommon as one might think.

It happens often, Inouye said, when conductors or other musicians at the symphony find lesser-known pieces and re-introduce them to the public. “It’s always an incredible discovery to find these gems,” he said, “and it’s a joy going through the process of learning the concerto.”

Written in 1963, the trumpet concerto has three movements; the first two are anxious in feeling, but also have a softer lyrical side that comes as somewhat of a surprise with a trumpet, not always the quietest instrument, Inouye said. The third movement is more dance-like and spirited.

“It’s accessible for an audience,” Inouye said, and said there’s even one part that sounds a bit like John Williams’ (no relation) “Star Wars” music.

Inouye has been familiarizing himself with other Grace Williams compositions (including symphonic works, film scores, choral and chamber pieces) by watching a YouTube channel devoted to her music. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential 20th century Welsh composers.

Williams (1906-1977), was born in the coastal town of Barry, Wales, to two schoolteachers. Her father, William, was a well-respected amateur choral director who encouraged his children’s music studies; Grace, who played piano and violin, was the oldest of three children. After graduating from University College, Cardiff, she went to London and studied composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams (no relation) at the Royal College of Music. Grace Williams’ first film score (“Blue Scar,” 1949) also marked the first time a British woman had scored a film.

She was known for her love of the sea, the theater and the trumpet, which figured prominently in several of her pieces. “I found it interesting that the trumpet keeps appearing in a lot of her works throughout her career,” Inouye said.

In addition to playing with the San Francisco Symphony, Inouye keeps busy as a member of the trumpet faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

A native of Davis, Calif., Inouye attended UC Davis for two years as a civil engineering major before transferring to the Juilliard School to study trumpet. He has also played with the New World Symphony and was principal trumpet with the Charleston Symphony before joining the San Francisco Symphony in 1999. When not performing classical music, he likes to play jazz, too.

His solo work with the San Francisco Symphony includes Copland’s Quiet City,  Bach’s Cantata No. 51 and the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, to name a few. He has performed his own jazz pieces with the SFS chamber music series. He has a debut jazz CD here, www.inouyejazz.com.

In his free time, Inouye enjoys running and surfing, and says he likes to compete against himself to better his own performances. “The competition is always there, but it’s always internal,” he said in this video produced by the San Francisco Symphony. “I’m not necessarily trying to run faster or surf a bigger wave than the guy next to me. I’m trying to surf a bigger wave than I’ve ever done before.”

In the video, he also talks about the parallels between playing in the orchestra and catching waves on a surfboard. “The excitement of catching a wave is very similar to the adrenaline rush of playing a symphony or a climactic moment in the band,” he said.

“It’s awesome. I cannot think of doing anything else.”

 CONCERT INFORMATION
Symphony Parnassus in concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 9 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, 50 Oak St., San Francisco, Calif. Also on the program is Shostakovich Symphony No. 6 and “Arthur Machen’s Childhood,” a world premiere from Symphony Parnassus resident composer Preben Antonsen.

Advance tickets are available from BrownPaper Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4216912 Cost is $25 for adults; $20 for seniors and $10 for students & under 26.

Alex Zhou, violin

The last time Symphony Parnassus performed with violinist Alex Zhou, he was a fresh-faced 14-year-old just getting used to playing with an orchestra.

 Three years later, while he’s still young at 17, he is a much more seasoned performer, self-assured in his art and finding deeper expression when he plays.

 “I am more aware of all the different subtleties of the music than I was three years ago,” he said. “That’s still something I am working on—listening closely to music and the orchestra, and not being afraid to express how I want to express the music instead of just playing notes. I feel that’s where I’ve matured over past the past three or four years.”

 Alex is the featured soloist for the Korngold Violin Concerto with Maestro Stephen Paulson and Symphony Parnassus for its spring concert on Sunday, April 7, 3 p.m. at Taube Atrium Theater, 401 Van Ness Ave., 4th floor. Also on the program: Chabrier’s Joyeuse Marche, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Tickets ($25 for adults; $20 for seniors and $10 for all students): https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4067535?date=2028986

They are also available at the door.

 Alex is a two-time winner (2015 and 2018) of the Parnassus – San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concerto Competition. The first time, he performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto; this time, he’s playing a piece that is a far cry from the early romantic lyricism of that piece. He looks forward to introducing audiences to the lesser-known violin concerto from the 20th century film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

 “I’ve fallen in love with it,” Alex said. “It’s very unlike other staples of the concerto repertoire, more film-like. It’s a mix between classical tonality and 20th century, not quite modernist. It’s a lot of fun to play.”

 Over the years, Alex has won many prizes. In addition to winning the 2018 Parnassus – SFCM Music Concerto Competition, his recent honors include:

• honorable mention at the U.S. National YoungArts Competition

• semifinalist at the 2018 International Shanghai Isaac Stern Violin Competition

• quarterfinalist at the 2018 International Schoenfeld String Competition

• 1st place, 2018 International Irving M. Klein String Competition

• 1st place, 2016 Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra Competition

• Fourth prize and Composer’s Prize, 2014 International Menuhin Violin Competition

 Alex lives with his parents James Zhou and June Hu in San Jose and attends The King’s Academy school in Sunnyvale.

 He started piano lessons at age 5 and began playing the violin a year later after seeing a home video of his older sister performing in her elementary school orchestra. Intrigued, he found her old violin and tried to play it, and soon began taking violin lessons, too.

 Now almost through with high school and set to graduate, he spent the earlier part of this year playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at college auditions and is still waiting to hear which conservatory he might attend.

 Alex says it is “very exciting” to be performing with Symphony Parnassus again. “It feels very different. I feel like I’ve matured a lot musically and grown as a musician and performer.”

Alex Zhou, Violin

Sean Mori, violin

The violin cast an early spell on Sean Mori, who began taking lessons at age 3 after seeing a violinist in concert in San Francisco.

He doesn’t recall the exact details of that first experience, but he remembers the feeling: “I thought it looked cool. I wanted to play the violin,” he said. His parents listened, got him into lessons, and two years later, he gave his first solo performance.

Sean, 16, lives in Palo Alto, Calif., with his parents Takeshi and Sachiko, and younger sister Jennifer, 13, who studies the cello; neither of their parents are musicians. Sean does high-school coursework through the School of Independent Learners in Los Altos, and attends the Pre-College Program at the SF Conservatory.

He enjoys bicycle riding for a hobby, and though he admits it’s a little bit dangerous, he finds it “a good way to let off steam.”

Sean says he says he is drawn to the way music, and especially the violin, can express emotion and stories, particularly in the towering Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, which he will perform with Maestro Stephen Paulson and Symphony Parnassus at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, at the Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco. (Purchase Tickets)

“Tchaikovsky had the ability to put in all these different colors and conflicts, and it has so many difficult emotions intertwined,” he said.   

His appearance with Symphony Parnassus marks the first time Sean has performed with an orchestra. He is a 2018 winner of the Symphony Parnassus / San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concerto Competition.

“It’s a great honor to be selected to play,” he said. “It’s a big risk to bring in someone who has never performed the Tchaikovsky concerto with an orchestra before. I’m honored that they had the trust in me.” 

Though it’s his first time performing as soloist with an orchestra, he’s no stranger to the concert stage, having played throughout the world, from Prague to New York to Japan, and is a scholarship student of Ian Swensen and Elbert Tsai at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

This past year, he was a quarter-finalist in the under-15 division of the 2018 International Menuhin Competition in Geneva, Switzerland. He has won many first-place prizes as well: the United States International Music Competition, DVC/HNU Young Artist String Competition, Pacific Musical Society competition, Galante Music Festival, Nova Vista Concerto Competition, and was invited to perform at Steinway Society of the Bay Area’s Young Artists Concert.

Sean admits to being “a little nervous” about his upcoming performance with Symphony Parnassus, but looks forward to “showing people what I can do.”