Gary Hoffman, cello

Gary Hoffman studies cello with Janos Starker. He made his debut at London’s Wigmore Hall at the age of 15. He then moved to New York City. At the age of 22, he became the youngest professor at the famous Indiana University School of Music.

In 1986, he won the first Rostropovich Grand Prix in Paris and began an international career, performing with the greatest ensembles on the various continents. He has performed with the orchestras of Chicago, London Symphony and English Chamber Orchestra, Montreal, Toronto, Baltimore, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Bordeaux, Monte Carlo, Budapest, Madrid RTVE, Warsaw, etc.

In recital, Gary Hoffman plays in top-tier venues: Alice Tully Hall, Suntory Hall, Kennedy Centre, Tivoli, Gulbenkian, St-Lawrence Center, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Bonn Beethovenhaus, Wigmore Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic, Geneva, Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Théâtre du Châtelet, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam… The audience was able to follow him for years with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.

He has been invited to numerous festivals: in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, the United States – Ravinia, Bath, Marlboro, Santa Fe, La Jolla, Blossom… -, in Europe – Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Stresa, Prades, Colmar, Helsinki, Monte Carlo, Enescu Festival in Bucharest…

Although relatively selective for his recital partners, he is in great demand in chamber music, and has a fine collaboration with the Jerusalem Quartet (with whom he has recorded Dvorak), the Modigliani Quartet, but also in trio with Pascal Moraguès and Claire Désert, or Philippe Graffin and Gérard Caussé, Nelson Goerner, Valeryi Sokolov and a few others.

Sought-after and assiduously followed for his teaching talents, he teaches in highly prized master classes. His teaching can thus be received in Salzburg, Ravinia, la Jolla, at the Curtis Institute, in Paris (CNMSP, Ecole Normale…), in Israel, Manchester, etc. but also in Kronberg, where Gary Hoffman is one of the pillars of the Academy. In 2011, he opened the cello class at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium by becoming the appointed Master.

Although he loves the great classical cello repertoire, Gary Hoffman does not disdain contemporary music, of which he is a committed spokesman. Composers such as Graciane Finzi, Renaud Gagneux, Joël Hoffman, Laurent Petitgirard, and Dominique Lemaître have dedicated their concertos to him. Gary Hoffman can also be heard in the concerti of Carter, Lemaître, Julius Bürger, the Epitaph of Arad Atar …

Gary Hoffman has recorded for BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI, Le Chant du Monde, as well as Dolce Volta – Mendelssohn with David Selig, Brahms Sonatas with Claire Désert (2017), Elgar’s Concerto and Bloch’s Schelomo with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège (conducted by Christian Arming) (2018). A new recording is eagerly awaited for 2023: the complete Sonatas and Variations for Cello and Piano by Beethoven, with David Selig, on La Dolce Volta.

Living in Paris since 1990, Gary Hoffman plays on a 1662 Nicolo Amati that once belonged to Léonard Rose.