NEXUS Chamber Music Season 7 bios

Kristina Bachrach

Soprano Kristina Bachrach is an artist confident in an extensive range of styles and languages. The 2023-2024 season brought many exciting debuts. She appeared for the first time with the University of Chicago’s ensemble-in-residence, the Grossman Ensemble, singing Unsuk Chin’s Akrostichon Wortspiel. She also appeared in recital with the Grand Valley Piano Chamber Series, performing works by Clara Kathleen Rogers, Carl Reinecke, and Robert Schumann. She debuted with Dartmouth’s Glee Club and the Handel Society as the soprano soloist in their joint performance of Honegger’s King David. She also appeared again with many beloved organizations including the Brooklyn Art Song Society, San Antonio College, and Guarneri Hall, in their festival celebrating Bernard Rands’ 90th birthday. She once again apppeared with pianist Winston Choi, performing Armando Bayolo’s Neruda Enamorado as part of the inaugural concert of the  University of Illinois at Springfield’s New Music series. She also participated in a remounting of Because I Could Not Stop: An Encounter with Emily Dickinson at both Holyoke Media and the Emily Dickinson Museum.

The previous season saw Ms. Bachrach’s debut in Hong Kong, performing a staged rendition of Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire at the Intimacy of Creativity festival. That same season Kristina participated in a Musicians from Marlboro tour, performing Shulamit Ran’s Moon Songs in six different cities and at Carnegie Hall. She returned to San Antonio College to give a recital and masterclass, and had return performances with Lyric Fest, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and the Marlboro Festival in Vermont. She also had the honor of premiering several new pieces with the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.

During the COVID-19 crisis Ms. Bachrach appeared in on-line performances with the Agarita Chamber Ensemble, New England Music Camp, Berkshire Choral International, the Metropolis Ensemble, the LYNX Project, MIOpera, Avaloch Farms Music institute, Token Creek Music Festival, Pegasus, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and the Artist Presentation Society of Saint Louis. She also performed in the on-line premiere of Njabulo Phungula’s Lingering Echoes with the Thompson Street Opera Company.

As live performance returned in 2021, Ms. Bachrach returned to the Yellow Barn Festival to perform works by Eisler, Janáček, Bach, Crumb, James Macmillan, and Karen Rehnqvist. That fall she performed with the Nexus Chamber Music Festival at the Ravinia Pavilion as part of the festival’s mainstage series. The group performed Alma Mahler’s 5 Lieder alongside the world premiere of Upon Wings of Words, which was written for the group by Augusta Read Thomas. That same season she appeared in recital with Washington D.C.’s Constellations Chamber Series, the LYNX Project, Boston’s Music for Food and Vermont’s Marlboro Music Fesitval. She also participated in a staged reading with Chicago Opera Theater, and performed David Ludwig’s Songs from the Bleeding Pines with the Brooklyn Art Song Society, both in NYC and on tour in North Carolina.

2019 saw Ms. Bachrach performing solo recitals through Dame Myra Hess and the Artist Presentation Society of Saint Louis Ms. Bachrach made her Japanese debut in a series of opera galas and she joined the roster of Chicago Opera Theater covering the role of Mae in the world premiere of Freedom Ride. . During the 2019-2020 season, Ms. Bachrach returned to the Brooklyn Art Song Society for concerts of Britten Folk Song Arrangements and Grieg’s 6 Lieder Op. 48 and to the Center for Contemporary Opera for their workshop of Outcast at the Gate. That same season saw Ms. Bachrach performing solo recitals through Dame Myra Hess and the Artist Presentation Society of Saint Louis. Ms. Bachrach made her Japanese debut in a series of opera galas and she joined the roster of Chicago Opera Theater covering the role of Mae in the world premiere of Freedom Ride. 

In the fall of 2018, Ms. Bachrach made her off-Broadway debut with Ensemble for the Romantic Century for a 39-show run of their original work Because I Could Not Stop: An Encounter with Emily Dickinson. Also in 2018, she joined New York’s Center for Contemporary Opera as the principal soprano characters in Taggart’s Swan’s Inlet and Pascal Dusapin’s To Be Sung. Her 2017 operatic appearances included Musetta in MetroWest Opera Company’s production of La femme bohème, an all-female take on Puccini’s evergreen masterpiece; her American Lyric Theater debut as part of their The New Crew event, presenting the initial hearings of works by Shuying Li and Andy Teirstein; and Susanna in Bare Opera’s two-hour Mozart / Rossini pastiche Figaro / Figaro!  She also appeared in concert with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn as soloist for Knoxville: Summer of 1915. A frequent and beloved guest artist with the Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS), she appeared with them on a variety of French mélodie concert programs throughout the season. In the spring of 2018 Ms. Bachrach served as Artist-In-Residence at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she performed a recital and delivered a lecture on music by composers who were suppressed or killed during the Holocaust.

During the 2016–2017 season, Ms. Bachrach made her debut with the New York Choral Society at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the American premiere of Joseph Vella’s The Hyland Mass, produced by the Order of Malta, and joined the Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) in repertoire ranging from Schubert Lieder to Hanns Eisler’s Hollywood Liederbuch. In recent seasons, Ms. Bachrach has become increasingly in demand for fulfilling prestigious artist residencies. During the summer of 2019, she returned for a third consecutive season to North America’s most prestigious chamber music retreat, the Marlboro Music Festival. In the spring of 2017, she joined the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar under the guidance of Stephanie Blythe and Alan Smith, to focus on the study and performance of song literature written by living composers. Ms. Bachrach served as a 2016 Artist in Residence at Yellow Barn Music Festival and at SongFest, where she gave a recital with composer John Musto at the piano.

As a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, Ms. Bachrach performed Pierrot Lunaire and was a featured soloist in the Mark Morris Dance Group’s production of Dido and Aeneas. She enjoys a long-standing relationship with SongFest at Colburn, as a three-time recipient of the Marc and Eva Stern Fellowship, and has recorded songs of John Harbison for a new recording commemorating SongFest’s twentieth anniversary.

Ms. Bachrach’s concert activity includes recital performances of Milhaud’s rarely-performed song cycle Alissa in the Masterworks Series at BargeMusic and at Notre Dame University, and performances of Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet with the Cantata Profana Ensemble in New Haven and New York. Additional New York performances include her appearance with the Westchester Choral Society for their 2013 Christmas concert, her debut with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn as the soprano soloist in the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, and her Carnegie Hall debut with the Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra as the soprano soloist in the Bruckner Te Deum at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Ms. Bachrach has performed in recital under the auspices of the Moravian Music Foundation and the Joy in Singing Foundation, and toured a Brahms Lieder program with the Brooklyn Art Song Society.

Equally adventurous as an operatic artist, Ms. Bachrach has appeared in new and rarely-performed repertoire with Thompson Street Opera Company (Louisville, KY and Chicago, IL), Gotham Chamber Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Naples, and New York’s Bare Opera, in whose inaugural production of L’enfant et les sortilèges she made her role debuts as the Princess and Shepherdess. Ms. Bachrach has fulfilled residencies with Nashville Opera, where she appeared as Clorinda in La Cenerentola and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, and Lyric Opera of Virginia, where she returned to perform Musetta in La bohème.

Ms. Bachrach holds degrees from Mannes College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (summa cum laude). She is an award winner with the Artists Presentation Society of St. Louis, Ziering-Conlon Art Song Competition, American Prize Competition, the Philharmonic Society of Arlington’s Young Artist Competition, the Metrowest Opera Competition, and the Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges.

Claire Bourg

Praised for being in “total command of music and instrument with an excellent sense of style and character”, violinist Claire Bourg is quickly captivating audiences with her sincere artistry, virtuosity, and passion.

Ms. Bourg has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in many of the world’s leading venues throughout the United States and Europe, such as Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Kimmel Center, Bremen’s Kleiner Saal, Pritzker Pavilion, Jordan Hall, and the Fryderyk Chopin University Hall in Warsaw. Most recently, she was a soloist with the Camerata Bern in Hannover, as part of the Joachim International Violin Competition.

A laureate of many competitions, Ms. Bourg was granted the prestigious 2021 Luminarts Fellowship, awarded second prize at the 2020 Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, and winner of the New England Conservatory Competition. A frequent voice on the radio, she has appeared on NPR and Chicago’s WFMT radio programs.

Ms. Bourg is an avid and sought-after chamber musician and has collaborated with several preeminent instrumentalists, including Mitsuko Uchida, Kim Kashkashian, Jorg Widmann, Ida Kavafian and Frans Helmerson, among others. She performs regularly with Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Music for Food, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Curtis on Tour and currently serves as the concertmaster of Symphony in C in Philadelphia.

This year Ms. Bourg returned as resident artist at the Marlboro Music Festival—one of classical music’s most coveted retreats, as well as the Evnin Rising Stars program at Caramoor. Previous international music festival residencies include Yellow Barn, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Taos Chamber Music Festival, International Musicians Seminar–Prussia Cove, and Gstaadt Menuhin Festival Academy.

Ms. Bourg is extremely passionate about premiering and performing the works of living composers. She has worked with Augusta Read Thomas, Jorg Widmann, David Ludwig, and Steven Mackey, among many others. She recently performed the Clearwater Rhapsody by Bright Sheng with the composer himself at the piano, in both Philadelphia and New York.

A native of Chicago, Ms. Bourg holds an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music studying with Pamela Frank and Arnold Steinhardt, and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory as a student of Miriam Fried. Currently residing in New York City, she is a student of Joseph Lin at the Juilliard School, where she holds the prestigious Kovner Fellowship.

Claire currently performs on a violin by Zosimo Bergonzi of Cremona, c. 1770 on generous loan through Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, Chicago. 

Alexander Hersh

Having given his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2022, cellist Alexander Hersh has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting and creative talents of his generation. He frequently appears as soloist with major orchestras, including the Houston Symphony and Boston POPS, and has received top prizes at competitions worldwide including the: 2022 Pro Musicis International Award, 2020 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, 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.”

An active recording artist, Hersh released his debut album ABSINTHE in 2023. The project marries his love of classical music with short films, comedy, and themed merchandise. The narrative based videos are available on Hersh’s YouTube channel and the album is out now on all streaming platforms.

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 the Guarneri Hall Affiliate Artists program and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins in Chicago, IL.

Brian Hong

Korean-American violist and violinist Brian Hong has forged a notable career as a chamber musician and educator. Known for his commanding stage presence, Mr. Hong joined the Grammy-nominated Aizuri String Quartet as their violist in 2023. He has performed concertos with such orchestras as the Juilliard Orchestra, New York Classical Players, Fairfax Symphony, American Youth Philharmonic, Chesapeake Orchestra, US Army Orchestra, National Philharmonic, and the Springfield Symphony. A dedicated chamber musician, Mr. Hong has served on the faculty of the Manchester Music Festival and as guest artist at the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival and Kneisel Hall. Other festival credits include Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, the Taos School of Music, and the Perlman Music Program.

Mr. Hong joined the esteemed viola faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music in Fall 2022. He has taught private lessons, public masterclasses, and chamber coachings on both violin and viola at George Mason University’s Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music, Missouri State University, and the Juilliard School. He has also taught live virtual masterclasses for the Joven Camerata de El Salvador as well as the Edward Said National Conservatory of Palestine. Mr. Hong’s mission as a teacher is to provide thoughtful and well-rounded instruction to students that maximizes their musical inspiration while illuminating the technical steps needed to achieve repeatable results. Mr. Hong believes in bringing the unique qualities of each student to life, and in the right of every student to have a high-quality musical education regardless of socio-economic status.

Mr. Hong is a graduate of Juilliard’s Artist Diploma program under the guidance of Laurie Smukler and Catherine Cho. As a Fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, he performed and taught in a variety of venues in New York City and abroad, as well as maintaining a two-year teaching-artist partnership with Celia Cruz High School for Music in the Bronx. Mr. Hong also holds a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Laurie Smukler and Li Lin and was awarded a prestigious Kovner Fellowship. Mr. Hong earned his Bachelor’s degree under Donald Weilerstein from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he was a member of three different honors ensembles and studied both classic and contemporary quartet repertoire with mentors including Laurence Lesser, Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, and Lucy Chapman.

Mr. Hong is the Programming Director of Project: Music Heals Us, a nonprofit dedicated to  providing musical education, access, and healing to marginalized populations with limited ability  to access it themselves. He is also a Co-Artistic Director of NEXUS Chamber Music Chicago in  Illinois, an artist-driven collective of musicians whose mission is to make classical music culturally relevant through live concerts and multimedia content. In his spare time, Mr. Hong can be found  brewing espresso or single origin pour-overs at his home coffee bar.

Geneva Lewis 

Kiwi/American violinist Geneva Lewis has forged a reputation as a musician of consummate artistry whose performances speak from and to the heart. Lauded for “remarkable mastery of her instrument” (CVNC) and hailed as “clearly one to watch” (Musical America), Geneva is the recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Additional accolades include Kronberg Academy’s Prince of Hesse Prize, being named a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence, and Musical America’s New Artist of the Month. Most recently, Geneva was named one of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists.

Since her solo debut at age 11 with the Pasadena POPS, Geneva has gone on to perform with orchestras including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Pensacola Symphony and Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and with conductors including Nicholas McGegan, Edwin Outwater, Michael Feinstein, Sameer Patel, Peter Rubardt, and Dirk Meyer. The 2022-23 season includes performances with the Auckland Philharmonia, North Carolina Symphony, Augusta Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Austin Symphony and Arkansas Symphony. In recital, recent and upcoming highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall, Tippet Rise, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Washington Performing Arts, Merkin Hall, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts.

Deeply passionate about collaboration, Geneva has had the pleasure of performing with such prominent musicians as Jonathan Biss, Glenn Dicterow, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, Marcy Rosen, Sir András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida, among others. She is also a founding member of the Callisto Trio, Artist-in-Residence at the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles. Callisto received the Bronze Medal at the Fischoff Competition as the youngest group to ever compete in the senior division finals. They were recently invited on the Masters on Tour series of the International Holland Music Sessions and performed at the celebrated Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

An advocate of community engagement and music education, Geneva was selected for the New England Conservatory’s Community Performances and Partnerships Program’s Ensemble Fellowship, through which her string quartet created interactive educational programs for audiences throughout Boston. Her quartet was also chosen for the Virginia Arts Festival Residency, during which they performed and presented masterclasses in elementary, middle, and high schools.

​Geneva received her Artist Diploma and Bachelor of Music as the recipient of the Charlotte F. Rabb Presidential Scholarship at the New England Conservatory, studying with Miriam Fried. Prior to that, she studied with Aimée Kreston at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. She is currently studying at Kronberg Academy with Professor Mihaela Martin. These studies are funded by the Strauss Family Patronage. Past summers have taken her to the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Steans Institute, Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Workshop, International Holland Music Sessions, Taos School of Music and the Heifetz International Music Institute.

Geneva is currently performing on a composite violin by G.B. Guadagnini, c. 1766, generously on loan from a Charitable Trust. 

Adam Neiman

Hailed as one of today’s preeminent American classical pianists, Adam Neiman has cultivated a breathtaking career spanning more than three decades and traversing four continents. Possessed of an encyclopedic repertoire – nearly seventy piano concertos, dozens of diverse solo recital programs, and virtually the entire canon of standard chamber music – Mr. Neiman has been acclaimed as a thought-provoking, charismatic, and highly virtuosic performer.

Born in 1978, Mr. Neiman’s trajectory as a concert pianist began at the age of eight, immediately blossoming with a succession of regional and national competition triumphs, recital and concerto appearances across the United States, and successful forays onto the international concert and competition circuit by his early teens. After making his Los Angeles concerto debut at Royce Hall at age 11, Clavier Magazine wrote, “Adam Neiman gave a performance that rivaled those of many artists on the concert stage today…his playing left listeners shaking their heads in disbelief.” At fourteen, he debuted in Germany at the Ivo Pogorelich Festival, and at fifteen, he won second prize at the Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy, the youngest medalist in the competition’s history. During his freshman year – as a 17-year old undergraduate at the Juilliard School ­– Mr. Neiman won three of America’s most prestigious classical music awards: an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Nominated during the same year for a Grammy Award, he subsequently graduated from the Juilliard School in 1999 as a recipient of the school’s highest honor: the rarely-bestowed Artur Rubinstein Award, and as a two-time winner of its Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.

Mr. Neiman went on to make debuts with prestigious symphony orchestras across the globe, including those of Belgrade, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Slovenia, Umbria, and Utah, in addition to the Sejong Soloists, New York Chamber Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C. He collaborated with many of the world’s celebrated conductors, including David Atherton, Jiri Belohlavek, Michael Francis, Giancarlo Guerrero, Theodor Gushlbauer, Carlos Kalmer, Uros Lajovic, Yoël Levi, Andrew Litton, Rossen Milanov, Heichiro Ohyama, Peter Oundjian, Leonard Slatkin, Osmo Vänska, and Emmanuel Villaume. As a recitalist, Neiman performed in major cities and concert halls throughout North America, as well as in Italy, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Serbia, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.

Mr. Neiman’s current season includes concerto appearances in Illinois and Montana (performing the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, and his own Piano Concerto No. 1). His current activities also include solo recitals and chamber music performances in Chicago, Seattle, Las Vegas, Greenville (NC), Georgetown (TX), and Manchester (VT). In past seasons, Neiman premiered his Piano Concerto No. 2, and he extensively toured and recorded three monumental solo projects: the complete Liszt Transcendental Études (2017 Aeolian Classics, DVD), Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata paired with the Diabelli Variations (2018 Aeolian Classics, 2-CD set), and Rachmaninoff’s complete Preludes, Études-Tableaux, & Cinq Morceaux de Fantaisie (2018 Aeolian Classics, 3-CD set).

A sought-after chamber musician, Mr. Neiman regularly appears at festivals across the globe. Initially a founding member of the Corinthian Trio (with violinist Stefan Milenkovich and cellist Ani Aznavoorian), Neiman later became a member of Trio Solisti for three seasons, capping his tenure with the ensemble with a presentation of the complete chamber music of Brahms at Carnegie Hall in 2015. His affiliation with Trio Solisti culminated in three critically acclaimed chamber music recordings on Bridge Records, adding to his already extensive catalogue of recordings released on BHM, Lyric Records, MSR Classics, Naxos, Onyx, Sono Luminus, and VAI.

Mr. Neiman is an accomplished composer, with a catalogue of compositions that includes two symphonies, two piano concertos, a string quartet, and various solo and chamber works. Recent commissions include his Piano Concerto No. 2, Piano Trio No. 2 for Clarinet, Violin, & Piano, and his String Quartet. Various documentary film appearances as a pianist resulted in his eventual contribution as a composer to the PBS documentary by Emmy Award-winning director Helen Whitney entitled: “Forgiveness, A Time to Love and a Time to Hate.”

Beyond his creative activities as a pianist and composer, Mr. Neiman is a tenured Associate Professor of Piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he also serves as Chair of the Music Conservatory. From 2016 – 2022, he served as Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont, and he is the founder and CEO of Aeolian Classics, LLC. Aeolian Classics – in addition to releasing top-tier classical music recordings – co-sponsors an annual music competition at Roosevelt University entitled the Aeolian Classics Emerging Artist Award. The yearly laureate receives a debut CD album, produced and distributed by Aeolian Classics.

Mr. Neiman’s studies commenced at age five – first under the guidance of his mother, Lea Neiman, then privately with Trula Whelan, Hans Boepple, and Dame Fanny Waterman, DBE. At 17 years old, Neiman entered the Juilliard School, studying principally with Herbert Stessin while also working closely with György Sandor and Jacob Lateiner. He graduated from the Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance.

Kyle Orth

Hailed as “spine-tingling” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) and “breathtaking” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), American pianist Kyle Orth possesses unusual virtuosity and artistic sensitivity. He has distinguished himself globally as a captivating soloist and chamber musician, passionately reviving lesser-known works while offering intriguing interpretations of pieces within the standard repertoire. The Dallas Morning News praised his complete musicianship for being “thoughtfully proportioned and detailed, with plenty of virtuosity when called for.”

Orth made his orchestral debut at the age of fifteen, playing Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Plano Symphony Orchestra. Since then, he has appeared as a soloist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Oaxaca (Mexico), Dallas Chamber Symphony, Missouri Symphony Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and the Richardson Symphony Orchestra, performing under the batons of Jaap van Zweden, Vahagn Papian, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Hugh Wolff, Anshel Brusilow, Hector Guzman, and others. He recently joined Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra on their subscription series “Tchaikovsky Marathon” to present Tchaikovsky’s underplayed Piano Concerto No. 2. His “unbuttoned enthusiasm” left a “sparkling impression” on critics, and the Star Tribune further commended his playing for its “thrillingly visceral” impact.

As a chamber musician, Orth has studied and performed in prominent international festivals including the Perlman Music Program, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Pablo Casals Festival-Academie in France. He was a founding member of the Caspian Quartet, a competitively selected honors ensemble at the New England Conservatory. The quartet’s 2017 recital in Boston’s Jordan Hall attracted special attention for their performance of the Saint-Saëns Piano Quartet in E major, a work that remained unpublished until 1992. Orth has collaborated with artists including Donald Weilerstein, Jing Wang, Angelo Xiang Yu, and Rachel Lee Priday, and often appears as a violin-piano duo with his wife, Rachel Arcega Orth.

An internationally recognized competitor, Orth holds over twenty first-place wins in local, national, and international music competitions. Triumphs include Grand Prize in the Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, as well as First Prize in the Dallas International Piano Competition and Hellam Young Artists Competition. He received top prizes at the Corpus Christi International Piano Competition and Wideman International Competition, as well as the Audience Award at the finals of the Washington International Piano Competition.

Recordings of Orth’s concerto and chamber performances have been broadcasted on WGBH-WCRB classical 99.5 in Boston and New Hampshire, as well as WRR radio, classical 101.1 in Dallas. During the coronavirus outbreak, he appeared in a long-distance collaboration recital with violinist Sean Lee for Salon de Virtuosi in New York, which was streamed live on The Violin Channel. A deeply committed educator, Orth regularly plays for Cliburn in the Classroom, a program that brings live presentations of classical music to thousands of children in public schools across the DFW metroplex.

Born in California in 1990, Orth spent much of his childhood in Texas and received a B.M. from Texas Christian University as a Nordan Young Artist. He holds a M.M. from New England Conservatory, and is now a doctoral candidate in NEC’s highly selective DMA program. During his time at NEC, he was awarded the Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award (2018) and a Presidential Scholarship (2016-2018); he also won the piano department concerto competition and performed Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto in Jordan Hall. His primary mentors were Wha Kyung Byun, John Owings, Alex McDonald, and Marcy McDonald; he also received coaching from Russell Sherman, Miriam Fried, Natasha Brofsky, Merry Peckham, and Vivian Weilerstein. Other meaningful contributions to his artistry include a love of nature, literature, poetry, religion, and his Latino-Jewish heritage.