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For Symphony Parnassus's Spring Concert on April 19, the centerpiece of the program is Saint-Saëns's La muse et le poète — a single-movement work for violin, cello, and orchestra that the composer himself described as "a conversation between the two instruments instead of a debate between two virtuosos." The soloists performing it bring that conversational spirit a personal dimension: violinist Stefan Hersh and cellist Alexander Hersh are father and son.

Alexander Hersh, cello

A top laureate of the Naumburg International Cello Competition, Alexander Hersh is widely recognized as one of the most creative and versatile cellists of his generation. Praised for his 2022 Carnegie Hall debut recital, he has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the Houston Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Symphony, and Boston Pops, and received top prizes from the Pro Musicis International Award, Astral Artists National Auditions, and Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant.

An avid chamber musician, Hersh has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and performed at leading festivals including Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Ravinia, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Lucerne, and IMS Prussia Cove. He is co-Artistic Director of NEXUS Chamber Music, an artist-led collective dedicated to breaking down barriers in how classical music is experienced, through intimate performances, multimedia projects, and new commissions.

His debut album ABSINTHE (2023) received critical acclaim, and he was recently featured on PBS's Now Hear This series in an episode exploring the music of Boccherini. A fourth-generation string player, his grandfather Paul Hersh taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 49 years. He plays a G.B. Rogeri cello courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins. In his spare time, he composes original music and creates short films that marry classical music with narrative — you can find them on his YouTube channel at @AlexanderHersh.

Symphony Parnassus audiences may remember Alexander from his 2019 appearance with the orchestra, when he performed Bloch's Schelomo to an enthusiastic response.

Stefan Hersh, violin

Violinist Stefan Hersh has a diverse background, having served as Principal Second Violin of the Minnesota Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, and as a member of the Callisto Ensemble, the Chicago String Quartet, and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. He has appeared as a featured guest artist and soloist in venues across North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Stefan is the founder and Artistic Director of Guarneri Hall NFP, a Chicago organization that produces a curated mix of live performances, original music videos, and digital content. He is also a partner at Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, where he appraises rare antique string instruments and bows worldwide. He served as Associate Professor at DePaul University before joining the faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in 2003.

Pablo Estigarribia is a Latin Grammy winner tango pianist, arranger and composer. Like many artists of this genre, he began his training as a classical musician and soon branched out into the world of tango. He studied at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires, where he won the Bienal Juvenil National Competition for Young Artists. After graduating, he spent several years on the frenzied performance circuit in Argentina, collaborating with the Congress Chamber Orchestra, the National Radio Orchestra, and the Chaco Symphony, among many others. Seeking to broaden his musical horizons beyond the classical realm, Estigarribia took a brief detour through jazz and then discovered tango in 2005. He quickly won the Orquesta Escuela de Tango scholarship and performed with this superb ensemble under the direction of Maestro Emilio Balcarce. Estigarribia continued working with Balcarce shortly thereafter when he first toured Europe.

Estigarribia rapidly established himself as a nuanced and masterful tango performer in Germany, France, Belgium, Japan, Russia, Finland, Canada, the United States and Cuba. He has been featured in over a thousand concerts, joining Argentine tango legends like Maria Graña, Victor Lavallén, Leopoldo Federico, Nestor Marconi, Horacio Cabarcos, Emilio Balcarce and many others. Estigarribia’s album Tangos Para Piano (EPSA) won the prestigious 2015 Gardel Prize for Best Tango Album by a New Artist. After receiving wide acclaim for this album, he earned coveted recognition from the Argentine tango industry as an expert in the art of tango music. He is a recipient of the Argentine Tango Society’s Medal of Honor for his educational forays at the Stowe Tango Music Festival (Vermont, USA) in multiple years. Estigarribia’s ascendancy brought him to Japan in 2016 where he was lauded in the Tokyo press following his performances. He then became sought after in the United States, where he played in New York’s famous Blue Note Jazz Club. He has made performance and interview appearances on NBC, Univision, Telemundo, and The Huffington Post.

After enjoying the privilege of 13 years of mentorship by legendary Osvaldo Pugliese arranger and bandoneonist Victor Lavallén, Estigarribia is proud to assume the role of teacher and transmitter of the tango tradition. He is delighted to showcase and share the beauty of tango's rich lineage, and gladly invites both the experienced and uninitiated to study the unique, seductive flair of tango. New generations of students and seasoned enthusiasts alike can advance their technical knowledge with Estigarribia’s compositions and arrangements. Above all, he seeks to reopen the passage of tango music repertoire to musicians who may not know where to start, so they too can delight in the genre's legacy. With that goal in mind, Estigarribia published his original compositions and arrangements of traditional pieces, Tangos de Concierto, and teaches, judges, and performs regularly at tango festivals and events all over the world.

Estigarribia splits his time between his native Buenos Aires, Argentina, and New York City.

See Pablo Estigarribia perform his Tres Tangos Concertantes for Piano and Orchestra with Symphony Parnassus on Sunday, June 11, 2023 at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He returns to SFCM for a special Solo Recital on Saturday, June 17, 2023.

Hélène Wickett, piano

Hélène Wickett, piano

Hélène Wickett has regularly appeared as soloist with major orchestras and in solo recital throughout Europe and the Americas as well as being active as a chamber musician. Her London Wigmore Hall debut took place in 1985, Kennedy Center in 1986, Paris Opéra Comique and Rome Villa Medicis in 1993.

Ms. Wickett has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Göteborg Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra of the Hague, Pittsburgh Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Graz Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, National Chamber Orchestra, Marseilles Opera Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Alabama Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, National Chamber Orchestra, New Mexico Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony and the Irish Radio Television Orchestra among many others, with conductors Raymond Leppard, Paavo Berglund, Christoph von Dohnányi, Hans Vonk, George Cleve, Edo de Waart, Nicholas McGegan, Joseph Silverstein, Peter Erös, Eduardo Mata, Bernhard Klee, Mehli Mehta, Janos Fürst, Murry Sidlin, Michael Lankester and Michael Tilson Thomas. 

She has played solo recitals in virtually every major western musical capital. Winner of the Pro Musicis Foundation Award, she made her New York debut under their auspices in 1980. Through the Pro Musicis Foundation she also has played in many non-traditional venues such as hospitals, maximum-security prisons, drug rehabilitation centers and mental institutions for diverse audiences with limited access to live classical music. 

Born in Palo Alto, California to an American father and Austrian mother, she began piano and violin lessons at age 4, played her first solo recital at 6, made her orchestral debut at 8 and won the San Francisco Symphony Youth Auditions at age 11, making the first of numerous solo appearances with that orchestra. She entered Stanford University at age 16, after having lived in Paris for several years to study theory and composition with Nadia Boulanger. Her piano teachers were Alfred Brendel, Robert Casadesus, Elena Hitchcock, Benjamin Kaplan, Abram Chasins and Geneviève Joy. 

Ms. Wickett has performed some 70 concertos with orchestra as well as most of the chamber music repertory. A violin student of Henryk Szeryng, Stuart Canin, Jacob Krachmalnick, and Naoum Blinder, she also plays viola and harpsichord. She is principal violist for Symphony Parnassus. She has also studied voice in Vienna and is fluent in six languages.   

HOPE BRIGGS, a native of New Jersey, drew a rave review from Opera News for her San Francisco Opera debut as the Duchess of Parma in Busoni’s Doktor Faust “… Hope Briggs was stellar, delivering one of the evening’s highlights with her lusciously intoned, lovelorn aria.” 

Most recently, Ms. Briggs sang the role of Lucinda in Opera San Jose's workshop of Jake Heggie's newest opera, Intelligence, and made her debut with Reno Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven's Ah! Perfido. She also appeared as Marschallin in excerpts of Der Rosenkavalier with Fremont Symphony Orchestra, performed Bruckner’s Te Deum with Oakland Symphony, returned to Baton Rouge for Opéra Louisiane’s 10th Anniversary Gala, and made two important role debuts: Nedda in I Pagliacci with Festival Opera and the title role in Joplin’s Treemonisha with Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. She also sang Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly with Opéra Louisiane, debuted at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and sang Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the San Francisco Choral Society at Davies Symphony Hall.

​In 2021, she will perform the role of Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites with Berkeley Chamber Opera as well as a solo recital with St. Ignatius Parish's Virtual Virtuoso Concert Series. In 2022 she will perform the soprano solos in Paul Moravec’ oratorio Sanctuary Road with Oakland Symphony. 

​As a critically acclaimed Verdi soprano, Ms. Briggs is known for the depth and beauty of her voluptuous voice. Ms. Briggs is hailed as “an artist of vocal sensitivity, theatrical wisdom, and integrity.” Her commanding stage presence and moving interpretations have brought her to great success singing the title role in Aida with Nevada Opera, Sacramento Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera and Leonora in Il Trovatore with El Paso Opera, Opera Roanoke and Festival Opera of Walnut Creek as well as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera with Festival Opera of Walnut Creek.

​Other career highlights include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and The First Lady in Die Zauberflöte at Frankfurt Opera, the Duchess of Parma in Busoni’s Doktor Faust at Staatstheater Stuttgart, the role of Paula in the world premiere of Hector Armienta’s River of Women/Rio de Mujeres with Theater Artaud San Francisco, Donna Elvira with Opera San José and Opera Company of Brooklyn, Serena in Porgy and Bess with Tulsa Opera and New Orleans Opera as well as the title role in Suor Angelica with Pacific Repertory Opera and Opera Company of Brooklyn.

Ms. Briggs is featured nationally on PBS performing the role of Emma Hyers in the multi-award-winning documentary film, Voices for Freedom, The Hyers Sisters' Legacy. She is also featured as a soloist on IDAGIO Global Concert Hall Series in Masters of the Spiritual. 

On the concert stage, Ms. Briggs has performed:  Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras, Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Hanna in scenes from The Merry Widow with Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes with the San Antonio Symphony and Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Marin Theater Company, Redwood Symphony and Symphony Parnassus).

As a featured soloist, Ms. Briggs’ numerous performances include The Opening Night Gala Concert with Oakland East Bay Symphony, The Symphony Parnassus at Herbst Theater, The Wondrous Sounds of Christmas at the San Francisco Symphony, Hope Briggs and Friends: A Musical Valentine at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, and the world premiere of Marion J. Caffey’s Three Mo’ Divas at the Lyceum Theater. A highly-acclaimed recitalist, she has performed for Oberlin Conservatory, African-Americans for Los Angeles Opera, Madewood Music Festival, Afrosolo Music Festival at the Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center, Concerts at the Abbey in Seattle, and Caio Melissa in Spoleto (Italy). By special invitation, Ms. Briggs performed for Jessye Norman at Alliance Française Trophée des Arts Gala and Rev. Billy Graham at the Billy Graham Crusade.

Hope Briggs is a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions National Finalist, Metropolitan Opera International Vocal Competition Award Winner, and recipient of an Encouragement Award from the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation. Hope Briggs is also an ABC KGO-TV 2012 African American Salutes Honoree, Marion Anderson Historical Society Scholar, and a 2013 Heritage Keeper Award Recipient from Friends of Negro Spirituals. Ms. Briggs is featured on PBS nationally performing the role of Emma Hyers in the documentary film: Voices for Freedom - The Hyers Sisters' Legacy.

Tickets for the Nov. 7 concert are $25 for adults; $20 for seniors and $10 for students 26 and under with I.D. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5234819