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Gregory Hesselink, cello
Cellist Greg Hesselink now teaches at Ithaca College after leading an eclectic life in New York City for nearly 3 decades. He is a winner of the Naumburg Chamber Award as a member of the New Millennium Ensemble, and is a member or former member of numerous other ensembles including the Locrian Chamber Players, Sequitur, Newband (caretakers of the Harry Partch instrument collection), the Argento New Music Project, New York Philomusica, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, the Bang on a Can ‘Spit’ Orchestra and principal cello of the Riverside Symphony. Other ensembles he has performed with include the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Vivaldi Consort, the Talea Ensemble, the Flux Quartet, Speculum Musicae, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Group for Contemporary Music, American Symphony Chamber Players, and with the dance companies Cedar Lake, Mark Morris, Merce Cunningham and Nai Ni Chen.
An active promoter of new music, Hesselink has premiered more than 150 works including concertos by David Lang, Ross Bauer, Daniel Weymouth, as well as James Tenney’s, Song and Dance for Harry Partch (on the tenor violin), at the DonaueschingenMusiktage. Premieres include works by Stephan Wolpe, Charles Wuorinen, Helmut Lachenmann, John Harbison, Harry Partch and the chamber version of Duke Ellington’s piano concerto. He has been the recipient of numerous awards with his ensembles, including the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, NEA, Ditson Fund, Copland and Mary Flagler Cary recording grants, CMA, Fromm, Meet the Composer and NYSCA commissioning grants. Recordings can be heard on CRI, Nonesuch, Bridge, Koch, Albany, Wergo, Innova, PPI and Point Records.
Hesselink has performed at venues and in festivals across North America, Europe, Turkey, Japan and Indonesia. Venues include Carnegie’s main hall, Zankel and Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully, Avery Fischer, MOMA, the Guggenheim and Metropolitan museums, the Library of Congress (100th birthday celebration for Eliot Carter), the National Cathedral, the Smithsonian Freer Gallery, Zipper Hall, the Andy Warhol Museum, Vienna’s Musikverein and Palais Lobkowitz, Philharmonie Chamber Hall (Berlin), Ojo Hall (Tokyo), Salihara (Jakarta) and multiple locations in the Cappadocia region of Turkey - Italian performances in Catania, Taormina, Palermo and Fano with cellist Giovanni Sollima, at the American Academy in Rome, and a summer at the Spoleto Festival with Colla Marionette.
Greg Hesselink received his training at the Interlochen Arts Academy (Cris Campbell), the Eastman School of Music (Steve Doane) and SUNY Stony Brook (Tim Eddy). Additional summer studies with Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Orlando Cole and Stephen Geber. Extensive chamber music studies with members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, Alban Berg, Emerson, Tokyo, Prague, Bartok and Mendelssohn String Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, Gil Kalish, Julius Levine, Jan De Gaetani and Martha Katz. Hesselink has taught at Princeton, Sarah Lawrence, Hunter College and for 20 years at Mannes prep. In addition to teaching each summer at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, he has taught at Yellow Barn, Kinhaven and at the 3rd Street Music School.