Bard College Berlin and Curtis Institute of Music Presents

Beethoven's „Geistertrio“ and Brahm's piano quintet

The violinist Liza Ferschtman, known for her “intensity, purity, and finely crafted artistry” (The New York Times), and the pianist Benjamin Hochman, celebrated for his “elegant, mature, and expressive playing” (The Boston Globe), lead a piano quintet together with the rising artists Leah Amory, Davin Mar, and Carson Ling-Efird from the Curtis Institute of Music. The program begins with Bohuslav Martinů’s lively Three Madrigals and Beethoven’s “Ghost” Piano Trio, and concludes with Brahms’s masterful Piano Quintet in F minor.

Please register via Google Form here.

In cooperation with Curtis Institute of Music.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Liza Ferschtman, violin
As a musical storyteller committed to the emotional language of every composer she interprets, Liza Ferschtman’s ever-widening path in her international career is as varied as the work she performs. Her great affinity for Schubert and Beethoven stands right alongside a passion for the expressionistic world of the early 20th-century composers, and her extensive discography lays further claim to that versatility, with
music written from 1676 to 2014.

As a concerto soloist, she performs with leading orchestras worldwide, such as the BBC Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, with conductors including Ivan Fischer, Antonello Manacorda, John Storgards, Juraj Valcuha and Stephane Denève. Also in demand as a director-soloist, she works with orchestras like Amsterdam
Sinfonietta, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, and ORCAM Madrid.

Ms. Ferschtman‘s creativity as an artistic director, curator, and collaborator has taken flight in a large, dynamic range of international projects. At the young age of 27, she was named artistic director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival, and during her 14 years of tenure, she expanded the festival into a multiarts annual event that took a unique place in the Dutch cultural landscape. Next to her busy life on stage,
she is now much in demand as a teacher.

In 2006, Ms. Ferschtman received the Dutch Music Prize, the highest governmental award for young musicians. In 2021, she was made Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau, a royal acknowledgment for her contribution to the Dutch cultural scene.

Leah Amory, violin
Leah Amory is a violinist and musician who strives for a future honoring classical music with urgency. Originally from New York City, she studies violin with Erin Keefe at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she holds a fellowship from an anonymous donor. Her passion for playing is enriched by her passion for visual art, crossword puzzles, and sonnets; she aims to share her truest voice within the conflux of these creative genres, relating a unique interpretation of self and music to her audiences.

Leah is grateful to those who have supported her lifelong search. Such mentors include Catherine Cho, Pamela Frank, Erin Keefe, Itzhak Perlman, and David Takeno. Along the journey, she has won prizes at the YoungArts Foundation, the International Virtuoso Competition, and the NY Chamber Players Competition, and she spends her summers sketching at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program.

Davin Mar, Viola
Davin Mar, from Vancouver, British Columbia, studies viola with Misha Amory and Hsin-Yun Huang at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he is the Irene R. Miller Fellow. He began playing viola at the age of four. Growing up in Vancouver, Davin’s teachers included Manti Poon and Marina Thibeault. He played for many years with the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra, and he has twice performed solo recitals
with the Vancouver Westcoast Musical Society. At Curtis, Davin is an avid chamber musician and frequent performer in the student recital series.

He also has a passion for orchestra and has been a principal violist of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Davin has participated in summer programs such as Morningside Music Bridge, the Verbier Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Aside from viola, Davin has a fondness for all things fish related. He enjoys keeping aquarium fish and freshwater fishing.

Carson Ling-Efird, cello
Twenty-year-old Seattle native Carson Ling-Efird studies cello with Peter Wiley, Christine Lee, Nick Canellakis, and Yumi Kendall at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she is the Arthur and Hilda Stander Fellow.

Carson made her solo debut with the Seattle Symphony in 2018 at the age of 12 after being selected as a Seattle Symphony Young Artist. In 2019, she was a KING FM Young Artist Award grand prize winner and received the Seattle Chamber Music Society Monika Meyer Clowes Memorial Award. She made her international solo debut with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra Youth in January of 2020. She also appeared on NPR’s From the Top as a fellow in Show number 391. In 2024, she studied in France at the Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, and in 2025, she was awarded a string scholar fellowship to study at the Heifetz International Music Institute.

Carson has also studied piano and composition. She began studying piano at age six while spending a year with her family in Kunming, China. Carson started composition in the summer of 2017 and has performed her own compositions. From 2019 to 2023, she was a selected participant in the Seattle Symphony Merriman Family Young Composers Workshop program, during which Seattle Symphony musicians premiered her compositions. Her latest composition is titled Procession Quintet, which is scored for piano, clarinet, flute, violin, and cello.

Benjamin Hochman, piano
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 quality performances. Winner of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Hochman has performed at venues and festivals across the globe, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Germany’s Klavierfestival Ruhr, and Lucerne and Verbier festivals in Switzerland.

Mr. Hochman’s new album, Resonance, released by Avie Records on Nov. 1, 2024, includes Beethoven Piano Sonatas Op. 109 and 110, George Benjamin’s Shadowlines, and works by Josquin de Prez and John Dowland.

In 2015, Mr. Hochman developed an auto-immune condition affecting his left hand. He decided to pursue his longstanding interest in conducting, studying with Alan Gilbert at The Juilliard School, where he was granted the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award. He assisted Louis Langrée, Paav Järvi, and Edo De Waart and created the Roosevelt Island Orchestra, consisting of some of New York’s finest orchestral and chamber musicians alongside promising young talent from top conservatories.

Fully recovered, Mr. Hochman re-emerged as a pianist in 2018 and recorded Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24, playing and directing the English Chamber Orchestra (Avie Records). He presented the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv, performed Beethoven sonatas for Daniel Barenboim as part of a filmed workshop at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and played both Beethoven and Kurtág for György Kurtág himself at the Budapest Music Centre.

Mr. Hochman is a Steinway Artist and a Lecturer at Bard College Berlin.

For more information, e-mail [email protected].

Time: 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm CET/GMT+1

Location: Konzerthaus Berlin, Kleiner Saal, Gendarmenmarkt 2, 10117 Berlin

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