Violinist Benjamin Hoffman has performed to critical acclaim throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, appearing in Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall (New York), Disney Hall (Los Angeles), the Philharmonie Berlin, the Wiener Konzertverein (Vienna), the Seoul Arts Center, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing). He has collaborated with many of the world’s preeminent musicians, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Soovin Kim, Yura Lee, Wolfram Christ, and Gary Hoffman, among others. Appearances at summer music festivals include the Atlantic Music Festival, Yellow Barn, Aspen, Music Academy of the West, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Ojai Music Festival.
Alongside pianist Irene Kim, Benjamin is a founding member of the Brightfeather Duo (brightfeatherduo.com), with whom he recently gave a concert tour of California, Malaysia, and Thailand premiering contemporary Malaysian and American works. He is also a founding member of the Webern Quartet (webernquartet.com), a string quartet dedicated to the works of the Second Viennese School in addition to contemporary premieres and standard repertoire. The Webern Quartet recently returned from a residency in Vienna, Austria, during which they were the youngest group ever to perform all four Schoenberg string quartets on the same day, and will be releasing their first album during the 2024-25 season on the Etcetera label.
Benjamin has appeared as a guest violinist with the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony, and has performed under the batons of conductors such as Simon Rattle, Edo de Waart, Marin Alsop, John Adams, and Peter Oundjian.
He is an enthusiastic concertmaster, having served extensively in that capacity with the New Haven Symphony, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, the Sichuan Orchestra of China, and the Yale Philharmonia. As co-concertmaster of the conductorless Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin led the groundbreaking ensemble for three seasons in repertoire such as Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, Debussy La Mer, and Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3.
One of the things he is most proud of is connecting underserved young musicians with opportunities across the country and the world. He has been a faculty member for eight consecutive years at the YOLA National Festival, a two-week intensive El Sistema-based workshop led by Gustavo Dudamel, and in 2017 founded the Young Composers Initiative of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, bringing composition lessons to elementary school-aged children throughout Los Angeles that would not otherwise have access to music lessons.
Benjamin studied at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the Universität der Künste Berlin, and received his degrees from Indiana University (BM) and the Yale School of Music (MM and DMA). His principal mentors were Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Alexander Kerr, Jorja Fleezanis, and Ani Kavafian.
