" ... to tremble in the air
blow in the ashes stir the ether
gnaw our fingers seek vain words
drag off the fallen shades behind us ..." 
- Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - I

The work of composer Michael Hersch has been described by The New York Times as “viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music ... claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity,” The Baltimore Sun as “work of great originality, daring, and disturbing power,” and The Washington Post as "spare, intense, fiercely inward-turning." Recent performances include those at the Aldeburgh Festival, Ojai Festival,  Lucerne Festival, and Avanti Festival; the New York City premiere of Zwischen Leben und Tod at the newly established National Sawdust, and new productions in Chicago (Ensemble Dal Niente) and Salt Lake City (NOVA Chamber Music Series) of his monodrama, On the Threshold of Winter. Over the past several years, Hersch has written works for Ensemble Klang, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Alban Berg Ensemble Wien, and the Library of Congress. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja commissioned both his Violin Concerto, which premiered in 2015, and his chamber work ... das Rückgrat berstend, which premiered in 2017. She recently recorded the concerto with the International Contemporary Ensemble (I.C.E.), and the duo with cellist Jay Campbell. Other recent recordings include his Images from a Closed Ward with the FLUX Quartet on New Focus, and Black Untitled on Ensemble Klang Records. In 2019/20, Mr. Hersch will be  Composer-in-Residence with the Camerata Bern in Switzerland.