MILAN MILISAVLJEVIC
Principal Viola, Met Opera Orchestra
with
Benjamin Hochman, Piano
Tuesday, March 16, 2027
7.30 p.m.
The Kosciuszko Foundation
15 East 65 Street, NYC 10065
Program: Selections by Brahms, Hindemith & Vieuxtemps
ABOUT THE MUSICIANS
Milan Milisavljević serves as the Principal Viola with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Dubbed “the engine propelling the performance forward” by the New York Classical Review, his playing combines intense expression with a profound link to the listener.
The Strad magazine describes his artistry as “very imaginative, with a fine, cultured tone”. His solo album, Sonata-Song, released by Delos Music, has earned glowing reviews. Notably, his recording of Aram Khachaturian’s Solo Sonata on the album is considered “definitive”.
As a soloist, Milan has performed with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestras of Belgrade, Medellín, and Boca del Río, Aspen Sinfonia, New York Classical Players, and Classical Tahoe. He has won prizes at competitions such as Lionel Tertis and Aspen Lower Strings and has performed at Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Josef Gingold, Cascade Head, Classical Tahoe and Grand Teton music festivals.
A prolific chamber musician, Milan performs regularly at Carnegie Hall with the MET Chamber Players. He has collaborated with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Augustin Hadelich, Cho-Liang Lin, and Joseph Kalichstein, as well as members of the Guarneri and Mendelssohn String Quartets.
Currently, Milan serves on the viola faculty at the Mannes School of Music and New York University. He was recently appointed Teaching Artist at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Furthermore, he has given masterclasses at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and festivals such as Aspen and Verbier.
Milan is committed to performing the music of underrepresented composers. He gave the world premiere of Leo Brouwer’s Solo Viola Sonata and regularly performs works by Ana Sokolovic and Jessie Montgomery. A recent highlight is his project Slow Beethoven, a collaboration with Lara St. John, Miranda Cuckson, and Jeffrey Zeigler, creating a lush sonic landscape based on Beethoven’s late string quartets.
Prior to his current position at the MET, Milan served as its Assistant Principal Viola for eleven seasons. His orchestral experience includes performing with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and serving as guest Principal Viola for the Toronto Symphony. Milan holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University. His major teachers include Jutta Puchhammer, Atar Arad, James Dunham, Nobuko Imai, and Samuel Rhodes. Milan is a Larsen Strings Artist.
In all roles, from orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician to conductor, Benjamin Hochman regards music as vital and essential. Composers, fellow musicians, orchestras and audiences recognize his deep commitment to insightful programming and performances of quality. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, and Suntory Hall. His festival appearances include Lucerne, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Krzyżowa-Music, Marlboro Music and Santa Fe.
Hochman’s recent and upcoming highlights include playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Rheinische Staatsphilharmonie conducted by Benjamin Shwartz; conducting the Szeged Symphony and Orlando Philharmonic; solo recitals in Paris, Berlin, and Hitzacker; and chamber music at Tanglewood and Nymphenburger Sommer. He tours with the Curtis Institute of Music to Berlin, Bremen, Stockholm, and Vienna, and curates Signs, Games, and Messages, the Kurtág Festival at Bard College, New York, where he has served as Artistic Director since 2022.
Hochman’s 2024 Avie Records release, Resonance, features Beethoven, George Benjamin, Josquin, and Dowland, praised by Gramophone for its “subtle timbral palette and keen ear for texture.” Earlier albums include Homage to Schubert and Variations, a New York Times “Best Recording of the Year.”
Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman studied with Claude Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music and Richard Goode at the Mannes School. At Mitsuko Uchida’s invitation, he spent three formative summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, during the same period that he was a member of the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
At 24, he made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Israel Philharmonic under Pinchas Zukerman, leading to engagements with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphonies, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Prague Philharmonia. He has performed under conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, and David Robertson.
In 2015 Hochman developed an autoimmune condition affecting his left hand, which led him to pursue his longstanding interest in conducting. At Juilliard he studied with Alan Gilbert, receiving the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award. Soon after, he conducted the orchestras of Santa Fe Pro Musica, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and The Orchestra Now at Bard College.
Fully recovered, he returned to the piano in 2018, recording Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24 as pianist and director with the English Chamber Orchestra (Avie Records). He went on to present the complete Mozart Sonatas, perform Beethoven sonatas for Daniel Barenboim at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and play both Beethoven and Kurtág for Kurtág himself at the Budapest Music Centre.
A Steinway Artist, he lives in Berlin and teaches at Bard College Berlin.