![\"Alexander](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image0-2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nWhen Alexander Hersh performs with the Dallas Chamber Symphony at Moody Performance Hall on Nov. 11, the Chicago-based cellist will be following in his family\u2019s footsteps. His great-grandparents played in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra several decades ago. His great-grandfather, Ralph Hersh, was the orchestra\u2019s principal violist and his great-grandmother played violin.<\/p>\n
David Shifrin was the Dallas Symphony Orchestra\u2019s principal clarinetist when Hersh\u2019s great-grandparents were in Dallas, and he remembers them fondly.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently, my great-grandparents were known for throwing parties within the Dallas Symphony and David Shifrin met his first wife, thanks to them at one of their iconic Dallas Symphony parties,\u201d Hersh said.<\/p>\n
Hersh is a fourth-generation professional string player. In addition to his great-grandparents, his grandfather is a violist and pianist, and his parents are active professional violinists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cool and special in that music was such a big part of the value system in my house growing up. From as long as I can remember, the world revolved around music,\u201d Hersh said. \u201cEven to this day, my dad and I perform together. We perform the Brahms Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra all over the country. That\u2019s really special. One time we did three generations of grandpa, dad, and me \u2013 grandpa is pianist \u2013 and we did the Beethoven Triple Concerto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hersh began playing cello at age five. Initially, he was interested in the string bass, but he was too small for that instrument. His first cello was a viola with a pin on the end, and he played it like a cello. He was even too small for the chairs at his early lessons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would sit on phone books,\u201d Hersh said. \u201cI remember going to lessons and my mom would carry phone books so I could have a proper chair for my feet to touch the ground. Luckily, I grew and I never switched to double bass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even at that tender age, he was determined to become a professional musician, and cello became a central focus in his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this clich\u00e9 that the cello is most similar to the human voice, and I think that\u2019s true, but what I love about the cello is that it can do anything. It can play this incredible range of super low, super high and everything in the middle, but it can do these extended techniques too and pushing those limits is always fun and interesting. It\u2019s part of me and the ritual of practicing every day is a part of my life. It\u2019s like breathing air. It\u2019s what I need to feel normal. It\u2019s a lifestyle,\u201d Hersh said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tEdward Ingold<\/p>\n
\t\t\tEdward Ingold<\/p>\n
Hersh performed Dvo\u0159\u00e1k Cello Concerto in B minor with the Highland Park Strings in 2023.<\/p>\n
Hersh gave his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2022 and won the top prize at the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition. He has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, including the Houston Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and Boston POPS. He is devoted to chamber music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love chamber music in that it is sort of a team sport in that you can create something better than the sum of its parts. You can make something very special, and everyone has to play such an important role, and it is very interconnected,\u201d Hersh said.<\/p>\n
He is the co-artistic director of NEXUS Chamber Music, a collective of international artists who are equally passionate about chamber music. NEXUS produces a two-week festival in Chicago every August, presenting chamber music \u2013 new and familiar \u2013 in unusual and intimate venues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a passion project,\u201d Hersh said. \u201cWe try to make it fun. That sounds silly, I know, but I think that\u2019s something where chamber music often misses the mark. It is billed as this very serious thing, and it is something you either get or you don\u2019t get it. We like to say we take the music incredibly seriously, but we don\u2019t take ourselves terribly seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2023, Hersh released his debut album ABSINTHE. The album features music from the era when absinthe was banned in Europe. His album features videos that marry classical music and storytelling. The release party featured absinthe cocktails and because Hersh does not drink alcohol, some non-alcoholic cocktails too. Most of the party attendees were in their late 20s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s part of a larger mission to get new audiences interested in classical music,\u201d Hersh said.<\/p>\n
He will perform the original version of Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cRococo\u201d Variations with the Dallas Chamber Symphony. When Tchaikovsky wrote the work with eight variations, he asked German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen to look at it. Fitzenhagen rearranged variations and cut the eighth variation. The Fitzenhagen version became the one most commonly performed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never performed the original version before,\u201d Hersh said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a different piece. It has the eighth variation, which is the ending. It somehow feels more Mozart-like and less Tchaikovsky, even though this is the original.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tchaikovsky\u2019s original version reflects his admiration of the Classical style.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a light piece. It is so charming and so beautiful. It is a gem of the repertoire,\u201d Hersh said. \u201cIt\u2019s not quite as flashy as the one that everyone plays, but there\u2019s something so wonderful and honest that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dallas Chamber Symphony concert pairs Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cRococo\u201d Variations with Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Czech Suite and Mozart\u2019s Symphony No. 38, “Prague”
\u201cEverything is so curated and wonderfully tasteful,\u201d Hersh said. \u201cEverything is a gem. You\u2019re going to like it the whole way thru,\u201d Hersh said.<\/p>\n