By Mark Thomas Ketterson
Sometimes artistic talent runs in the blood. Such is the case with the extraordinarily gifted young cellist Alexander Hersh, an alum of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, who is carving out an interesting niche for himself in the classical music market. Both of his parents are active violinists. His father, Stefan, is the artistic director of Chicago’s jewel box of a performance venue and recording facility, Guarneri Hall NFP. His grandfather Paul Hersh is professor of viola and piano at San Francisco Conservatory, while his great-grandfather Ralph Hersh was principal violist of the Dallas and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. It is quite the legacy to bear, but Hersh is profoundly grateful for it, and takes delight in relating a story of a fan who approached him gushing that he had studied with Hersh’s grandfather at Aspen. “I hate to break it to you,” he told the fan, “But that was my great-grandfather.”
Hersh returns to Ravinia on September 9 with his ensemble NEXUS Chamber Music to perform a program of works by women composers of various eras. The centerpiece is a world premiere, Upon Wings of Words, a piece for soprano and string quartet by composer Augusta Read Thomas.
NEXUS Chamber Music co-artistic directors violinist Brian Hong (left) and cellist Alexander Hersh (right)
Hersh was initially fascinated by the double bass but was “an abnormally tiny little kid” and his parents had to explain that double basses did not come in his size. They suggested cello. “Turns out,” he remembers wryly, “they didn’t make cellos that small either. My first cello was a viola with a pin on the end of it.” His future with the instrument was sealed at the age of 5, however, when his father took him to Tower Records. (Those of a certain age may want to check the greys in hearing his description of the much-missed music distributor as “this place that no longer exists”). His father gifted him with Pablo Casals’s legendary recording of the Bach cello suites. Hersh was stunned at the beauty of the prelude to the first. “I wanted to be able to do that. I was involved in Suzuki, and my teacher heard me trying to play the prelude. He was touched and wrote the music out in a way I could read. That was the first piece I ever learned. It is very special to me. Every time I come back to it, I have all those memories, and it is amazing to have a piece so rich that you keep digging into. I have been playing it for 23 years.”
“The idea is to push the boundary of what a classical music video can be. I started working with lighting designers and writing narratives to bring to this music.”
Hersh attended the Academy of Music Institute of Chicago (his classes took place on Ravinia’s grounds) then the New England Conservatory for his bachelor and master’s degrees. Along the way he won a slew of awards, debuted as soloist with the Boston Pops while still in his senior year, and subsequently studied with Nicolas Altstaedt at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin. Hersh has appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony and has performed an eclectic repertory of music at major festivals worldwide.
While conversation with Hersh reveals the insight and wisdom of an old soul, he is very much a contemporary thinker who recognizes the potential for information technology to expand the classical music audience. When the pandemic torpedoed live concerts, he seized the opportunity to create his own channel on YouTube. “The idea was to push the boundary of what a classical music video can be. I started working with lighting designers and writing narratives to bring to this music that I love and want more people to love as I do. The internet is an incredible tool to transmit great art. It has its cons—the age of social media has shrunk our attention spans—but at the same time, its power is amazing. One post can reach so many people and that is really exciting if you are spreading a message of art and inspiration. I am a huge believer. The culmination was the release of my first EP. I did a presale where all proceeds went to Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Colorado Healing Fund. It was empowering to take one’s art and raise support for people in need. Yo-Yo Ma is a huge inspiration for me, he has transcended what it means to be a cellist—he is an ambassador for goodness. We can’t all be Yo-Yo Ma, but we can learn from that.”
A visit to Hersh’s YouTube channel reveals glorious traversals of music by Debussy, Webern, and many others, all presented with cutting-edge creativity and impeccable musicianship.
In addition to presenting concerts designed to closely connect to listeners—both physically from their home stage at Guarneri Hall (above, left) and through carefully curated programming—NEXUS Chamber Music aims to put its repertoire in contexts that are familiar to 21st-century music enthusiasts, such as creatively lit and directed music videos (pictured here from Alexander Hersh’s YouTube video with Victor Asunción, performing the third movement of Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano), sometimes with an added narrative.
That same resonance to contemporary consciousness infused the creation of NEXUS Chamber Music, which Hersh formed with violinist Brian Hong as co-artistic directors. Endearingly, the ensemble emerged as the result of an argument in college, when Hong blasted the Takács Quartet recording of Bartók’s Fourth String Quartet on his CD player, “obnoxiously, for all the dorm to hear,” as Hersh recalls. While slugging it out over the merits of the recording, the two men discovered that their musical philosophies were entirely simpatico, and they began to work together, eventually forming NEXUS. “We initially had the idea of starting a summer chamber music festival in downtown Chicago. We partnered with Guarneri Hall, which was being built at the same time. Now, NEXUS is a group, a roster of artists from all around the world who are deeply passionate about chamber music and convene to present projects. It has expanded to do things throughout the year, with tour dates and stuff. We are interested in breaking down barriers that separate artists and audiences, and in collaborating with filmmakers and directors to make high-production things that might reach a new audience. The big thing we love is challenging audience expectation.”
The September program for Ravinia is illustrative of the NEXUS creativity. “It has no intermission. We were interested in the idea of a shorter program of female composers from different eras. All these pieces have a distinctive poetic flow. The Amy Beach is gorgeous, the Alma Mahler, so lyrical. We thought it would be cool to pair all these things in one concert. We are so touched that Gusty [composer Augusta Read Thomas] believed in us and wrote Upon Wings of Words. We are also recording it for Nimbus in London, right after the Ravinia concert.”
“The internet is an incredible tool … to take one’s art and raise support for people in need. Yo-Yo Ma is a huge inspiration for me, he has transcended what it means to be a cellist – he is an ambassador for goodness.”
Upon Wings of Words is in addition the subject of a documentary film currently in production at Guarneri Hall NFP, which will explore the creation of a commission and its bloom into fruition. Guarneri Hall Artistic Director Stefan Hersh sheds some light on the film’s genesis and progress: “The notion of Guarneri Hall was as a small audio/video recording space that could house a live audience, but mainly the notion was that we should begin to adapt classical music for audiences who would experience it on screen. This has included outreach to filmmakers—to plug into that world and draw them into the classical music world to create a kind of collective art form.
Composer Augusta Read Thomas
“When the commission with Gusty came, I knew I wanted to document this. I have recorded and played much of her music and I know her well, so I know how effectively Gusty will read on film. I really wanted to document the creative process from the start. I reached out to Alex Skalomenos, who is a wonderful documentary filmmaker. I will advise, but I really want this to be a film by him. I can’t know exactly how he will make the film, but it would be inappropriate for me to dictate to him. Alex [Hersh] and Brian [Hong], the central forces in NEXUS, are subjects of the film along with Gusty and soprano Kristina Bachrach, who sings so beautifully and will perform the piece. We’re capturing stuff right now and we will see how it lands!”
While all this media interface is fascinating, for Alexander Hersh and his scintillating cello it still ultimately comes down to love of music. “As a cellist, I have to be pretty omnivorous. That is something I love about this instrument. There is so much great music. You can’t say ‘I only play Bach’ because then you are playing, like, six pieces. As cliché as this may sound, my favorite music is whatever I am working on. I love performing.
“Coming back to Ravinia is going to be so special,” Hersh muses. “I was in the audience many times growing up. My precollege used to take place at Ravinia, in the main building. Two or three of my formative years were spent here. Then I came back for Steans, and I am coming back now. It is such a special experience to come to Ravinia in three different stages of my life. To be back on that stage now with NEXUS—that’s really exciting.” ■
Mark Thomas Ketterson is the Chicago correspondent for Opera News. He has also written for the Chicago Tribune, Playbill, Chicago magazine, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center.