CSM Guest Artists

Paul Hersh, Piano

Equally active in piano and viola, Paul Hersh studied viola with William Primrose and piano with Leonard Shure and Edward Steuermann. From 1961 to 1971 he was violist and pianist of the Lenox Quartet and made his piano debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1964. Hersh attended Yale University and teaches poetry and literature in addition to piano and chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is a former faculty member of Grinnell College and SUNY–Binghamton, and he has been artist-in-residence and visiting faculty at the University of California– Davis, Temple University, Oregon State University, University of Western Washington and the University of Montana. He has given concert tours in Taiwan, China, Korea and Russia and has recorded on the RCA, CRI, Desto, Orion, Dover and Arch Street labels. Hersh has performed at the Berkshire, Aspen, Skaneateles, Moab and Olympic music festivals, as well as the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Spoleto (Italy) Festival of Two Worlds and the Caramoor Center in New York, and has taught and performed at Kneisel Hall.

Lowell Leibermann, Composition

Lowell Liebermann is one of America’s most frequently performed and recorded composers. Orchestras worldwide have played Liebermann's works, as have distinguished artists including Sir James Galway, Steven Isserlis, Susan Graham, Charles Dutoit, James Levine, Andrew Litton, Msistislav Rostropovich and many others. His compositions have been released on compact disc by more than forty labels. His Piano Concerto No.2, Op.36, recorded by Stephen Hough and the BBC Scottish Symphony with the composer conducting, received a Grammy nomination for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition.”

Mr. Liebermann has written two operas, both premiered to great audience and critical acclaim: The Picture of Dorian Gray, commissioned and premiered by the Monte-Carlo Opera, and Miss Lonelyhearts, with a libretto by J. D. McClatchy after Nathanael West’s novel, commissioned by the Juilliard School to celebrate its 100th Anniversary.

He has served as Composer-in-Residence for many organizations, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Sapporo's Pacific Music Festival, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. He was the first composer to win the Composers' Invitational Award of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition for his Three Impromptus, Op.68 .

Mr. Liebermann maintains an active performing schedule as pianist and conductor. He has collaborated with distinguished artists such as flautists Sir James Galway and Jeffrey Khaner, violinist Chantal Juillet, cellist Andres Diaz, and singers Robert White and Carole Farley in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie.

[ back to top ]