Our next visiting artist from Juilliard has just been confirmed!

News Just In…We are so excited that our next visiting artist from Juilliard has just been confirmed! It will be our pleasure to welcome Mr. Benjamin Moermond on May 18th!

Benjamin Moermond is an American bassoonist from Cincinnati, Ohio, who joined the Hong Kong Philharmonic as Principal Bassoon on September 2010. After his high school bassoon studies, which begin at the age of 13, he ventured to New York City, where has spent five years as a student at The Juilliard School. His tutors there included Judith LeClair and Patricia Rogers, and past teachers have included Martin James and Russell Hinkle. Benjamin completed his Bachelor of Music degree in 2009 and left the Master of Music degree unfinished to pursue his current position with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

While a student at Juilliard, he was equally active as an orchestral and chamber musician and was a member of the emerging PUFF! Quintet, who were finalists in the 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and winners of the Treetops CMS J. C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition. He also performed occasionally as a substitute musician with the New York Philharmonic.

Summer activities have taken Benjamin around the world including on the Juilliard Orchestra’s tour to China in the summer of 2008, as well as to the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan in 2008, the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland in 2008 and 2009, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas European tour in 2006, and a five week residency in the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy in 2005. Other summer festivals have included Spoleto USA and the newly formed Castleton Festival under maestro Lorin Maazel in 2009, as well as the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in 2007.

Laura Rea, Head of Performing Arts