Composer-pianist Michael Hersch premieres own music at NYC’s DiMenna Center (Dec 6); other works receive premieres in NYC (Feb 16) & Germany (March 19 & 20)

(November 2025) — “A natural musical genius who continues to surpass himself” (The Washington Post), Michael Hersch writes “works that are often startling in their complexity, beauty and demonic fury” (The New York Times). Also an accomplished pianist known for his “astounding facility at the keyboard” (International Piano), the composer joins violinist Miranda Cuckson and cellist Coleman Itzkoff for “Of Sorrow Born,” a program of his music for solo instruments, presented by AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) at New York’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Featuring his own world premiere performance of a new piano piece, es beginnt, the chamber concert marks Hersch’s first public performance of his work for more than seven years (Dec 6). Another of his compositions, Trauerrefrain – songs after texts of Anja Utler, receives its world premiere performances in Leipzig and Berlin (March 19 & 20), and Emi Ferguson gives the New York premiere of unwrung, apart, always for solo flute (Feb 16). There will also be a film screening of his opera Poppaea in Washington, D.C. (Nov 4); new recordings of his music on the New Focus and Kairos labels; and a concert video of his Violin Concerto, featuring Patricia Kopatchinskaja, captured at last year’s Lucerne Festival.

Hersch performs own music in NYC (Dec 6)

When Hersch last performed his own music in New York, the event was named among the “Top Ten Performances of 2018” by New York Classical Review, which observed:

“Hersch is the ideal interpreter of his own piano music – gifted with an ear for luscious or luminous sonorities, and the digital technique to fling out dissonant torrents of notes that might have given Franz Liszt pause.”

Indeed, Hersch has premiered a number of his own compositions, including The Vanishing Pavilions (2005), which The New York Times considers “an extraordinary musical experience and a pianistic masterpiece.” Of his first account of the evening-length work, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported: “He conjured volcanic gestures from the piano with astonishing virtuosity. The evening felt downright historic.”

In “Of Sorrow Born” at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music (Dec 6), Hersch not only reprises selections from The Vanishing Pavilions but also gives the world premiere of a new piano piece. Titled es beginnt, this is one of two new works inspired by the poetry of Anja Utler, whose 2023 collection Es beginnt: Trauerrefrain documents a deep intellectual and emotional crisis. The New York program also features Of Sorrow Born: Seven Elegies (2014) for unaccompanied violin and selections from the Second Sonata for solo cello (2000). These and other examples of his work for solo instruments will be performed by cellist Coleman Itzkoff, a trusted Hersch interpreter known for his “flawless technique and keen musicality” (The New Yorker), and violinist Miranda Cuckson, one of the foremost exponents of the composer’s music. As The New York Times realized after hearing her play Hersch’s work: “Ms. Cuckson was in her element here. It would be hard to imagine this music played more vividly.”

Looking ahead to the concert, Hersch reflects:

“As the years passed, I have spent less time performing publicly. It wasn’t due to any kind of dramatic proclamation or revelation about performing – no injury – I simply found myself training my focus on composing and other aspects of life. That said, I never stopped performing for friends and colleagues. However, having an opportunity to perform publicly with those musicians I care most about, and have had the longest artistic collaborations with, was and remains something I treasure.”

See Hersch perform the 29th movement of The Vanishing Pavilions.

Premieres in Germany (March 19 & 20) & New York City (Feb 16)

Next spring brings the first performances of Trauerrefrain – songs after texts of Anja Utler in Leipzig (March 19) and Berlin (March 20). Scored for soprano, oboe, and violin, Hersch’s new trio was inspired, like es beginnt, by the 2023 collection of German poet Anja Utler, whose honors include the 2024 Peter Huchel Prize. The work’s world premiere performances will showcase the “extraordinarily concentrated, caustically honest yet pure voice” (The New York Times) of soprano Ah Young Hong, a longtime muse of the composer’s, with Antje Thierbach on oboe and Yumi Onda on violin.

It was Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient Emi Ferguson who gave the first performance of Hersch’s solo flute composition unwrung, apart, always (2020), another of those inspired by the poetry of Anja Utler. Early next year, Ferguson gives the work’s New York premiere at a concert presented by the New York New Music Ensemble (Feb 16).

Poppaea screening in D.C. (Nov 4)

In addition to these live performances, there will be a screening of Hersch’s second opera, Poppaea (2019), at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. (Nov 4). A nominee for the 2023 Austrian Music Theater Prize for Best Contemporary Music Theater, the work offers an original 21st-century take on the story of a Roman Empress, the ways she is abused and silenced, and her own cruelty and desires. Starring Ah Young Hong under Markus Bothe’s direction, Poppaea was captured live at the 2021 Wien Modern Festival, of which it was a “major highlight” (Kronen Zeitung, Austria).

New recordings & film: Medea, Violin Concerto, & across … in grief and detail

Over the coming months, Hersch expands his already impressive discography with two new titles. November 21 marks the release of his third one-act opera, Medea (2022), on New Focus Recordings. Set, like Poppaea, to a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, his adaptation of the Greek tragedy was recorded live at its Cologne world premiere two years ago, starring soprano Sarah Maria Sun with the Schola Heidelberg vocal group and Ensemble Musikfabrik. A second recording follows early next year, when Kairos Records issues across … in grief and detail (2022). Recorded under studio conditions in Baltimore, the 30-minute duet will feature bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward and violinist William Overcash, as at its Chicago world premiere.

Meanwhile, home audiences can look forward to the release this fall of a concert video of Hersch’s Violin Concerto (2015), performed last year by its dedicatee, Gramophone Award winner Patricia Kopatchinskaja, with the Lucerne Festival Forward Orchestra. As Gramophone writes:

“Kopatchinskaja, who commissioned the concerto, aptly describes it as ‘brutal and vulnerable at the same time’, and her performance conveys that dichotomy with ferocious commitment.”

Michael Hersch: upcoming performances

Nov 4
Washington, D.C.
Humanities Institute, Johns Hopkins University
Film screening:
Poppaea (filmed at 2021 Wien Modern Festival)

Nov 9
Brooklyn, NY
147 Front Street
Spectrum NYC Solo Piano Exile Series
Teodora Adzharova, piano
Suite from The Vanishing Pavilions for piano

Dec 6
New York, NY
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music
Presented by AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company)
“Of Sorrow Born”: Michael Hersch’s works for solo instruments
Michael Hersch, piano
Miranda Cuckson, violin
Coleman Itzkoff, cello
es beginnt for piano (world premiere)
Of Sorrow Born: Seven Elegies for unaccompanied violin
Selections from Sonata No. 2 for Unaccompanied Cello
Selections from The Vanishing Pavilions for piano

Feb 16
New York, NY
87 Eldridge Street
New York New Music Ensemble (NYMNE)
Emi Ferguson, flute
unwrung, apart, always for solo flute (NY premiere)

March 19 & 20
   March 19: Leipzig, Germany
   March 20: Berlin, Germany
Ah Young Hong soprano
Antje Thierbach, oboe
Yumi Onda, violin
Trauerrefrain – songs after texts of Anja Utler (world premiere)