Gary Hoffman Canada/USA/France
Dates of masterclasses: 19 April 2021
Open masterclass (2 hours)
Gary Hoffman is one of the outstanding cellists of our time, combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a poetic sensibility in his distinctive and memorable performances. Mr. Hoffman gained international renown upon his victory as the first North American to win the Rostropovich International Competition in Paris in 1986.
A frequent soloist with the world's most noted orchestras, he has appeared with the Chicago, London, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Baltimore and National symphony orchestras as well as the English, Moscow and Los Angeles chamber orchestras, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Netherlands and Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra for the Blossom Festival and Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. Mr. Hoffman collaborates regularly with such celebrated conductors as André Prévin, Charles Dutoit, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zuckerman, Andrew Davis, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Jésus Lopez-Cobos and James Levine…
Gary Hoffman performs on major recital and chamber music series throughout the world, as well as in such prestigious festivals as Ravinia, Marlboro, Aspen, Bath, Evian, Helsinki, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Schleswig-Holstein, Stresa... He is a frequent guest of string quartets including Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Brentano, and Ysaye.
Mr. Hoffman is a regular guest of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
Gary Hoffman premiered many concertos (Laurent Petitgirard, Joel Hoffman, Renaud Gagneux, Gil Shohat, Graciane Finzi, Dominique Lemaître, French Premiere of Elliott Carter Cello Concerto… )
Sharing his time and engagements mainly between Europe and America, he also regularly travels for concerts in Asia. He is the guest of main halls such as the Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Kennedy Center, and numerous festivals: Ravinia, La Jolla, Schleswig Holstein, Verbier, Festival International de Colmar, Evian, Prades Festival, Honk Kong International Chamber Music Festival, Vancouver, Storioni, … etc. Gary Hoffman plays and gives master classes at the Ravinia Festival, Bloomington, Kobé, Manchester Cello Festival, Salzburger Mozarteum, Festival de Prades , Santa Fe… he is a close part of the Kronberg Academy family for years, intimately involved in the Academy Masters, the festivals, and the master class weeks .
Born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1956, Gary Hoffman devotes time to teaching, as well, having been the youngest faculty appointee in the history of the Indiana University School of Music, where he remained for eight years. Mr. Hoffman regularly holds master classes world-wide. He studied the cello with Janos Starker.
In September 2011 he was appointed as Professor at the Musical Chapel in Brussels, opening the cello class.
Residing in Paris, he is an active recording artist with the BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI and Le Chant du Monde and La Dolce Volta labels.
His Brahms Sonatas’ recording with Claire Désert – will be published in the autumn 2017 onto label La Dolce Volta. He participated in Dvorak recording with the Jerusalem Quartet (Harmonia Mundi)- they are touring together in the main European cities.
Elgar cello concerto and Shelomo (Bloch) recorded with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège conducted by Christian Arming was released in October 2018 onto La Dolce Volta.
Gary Hoffman performs on 1662 Nicolo Amati, the "ex- Leonard Rose".
