Johnny Gandelsman

The Grammy award-winning violin virtuoso joins the Hop as a year-long resident this year.

The Hop will present his entire This is America anthology for the first time, including four Hop commissions with guest composers visiting for each concert. Gandelsman will expand the original 24-piece anthology with three premieres here at Dartmouth. During each of his four concerts, he will be joined by the composer of each commission to shed light on their work. In addition to performing at Dartmouth, Gandelsman will also perform at partner venues in the region every term.

A long-time collaborator with the Hop, Gandelsman has graced our stages as part of the Silkroad Ensemble and Brooklyn Rider.

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This Is America
In 2020, in response to the turbulent and disconnected time of the early pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, violinist and member of Silkroad Ensemble Johnny Gandelsman invited a wide array of American or US-based composers to reflect on the current state of society in a personal and intimate way. An anthology of compelling new works for the virtuoso violinist, the suite celebrates America's rich cultural tapestry through the eyes of contemporary composers.

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Johnny Gandelsman
Grammy award-winning violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman's musical voice reflects the artistic collaborations he has been a part of since moving to the United States in 1995. The New Yorker has called Johnny "revelatory," placing him in the company of "radically transformative" performers like Maurizio Pollini, Peter Serkin and Christian Zacharias. As a founding member of Brooklyn Rider and a former member of the Silkroad Ensemble, Johnny has closely worked with such luminaries as Bela Fleck, Martin Hayes, Kayhan Kalhor, Yo-Yo Ma and Mark Morris. Gandelsman integrates a wide range of creative sensibilities into a unique style amongst today's violinists. Johnny's recording of the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, which reached #1 on the Billboard Classical Chart, and made it onto NY Magazine and NY Times Best of the Year lists. A passionate advocate for new music, Johnny has premiered dozens of new works and has been producing records since starting his label, In a Circle Records in 2008. Recent credits include the Silkroad Ensemble's critically-acclaimed recording of Osvaldo Golijov's tone poem in voices Falling out of Time (In a Circle Records); Brooklyn Rider's Healing Modes and The Wanderer (In a Circle Records); and Sing Me Home, a Grammy-award winner for Best World Music album (Sony). Johnny also produced music for Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Bottstein's film The US and the Holocaust. Johnny was born in Moscow into a family of musicians. His father Yuri is a violist, his mother Janna is a pianist, and his sister Natasha is a violinist as well. He lives in New York.