Master class coaching by guest artists has been part of Hoff-Barthelson’s curriculum since the School’s founding in 1944. This distinguished tradition continues this season with a roster of world-class musicians and educators.

Master classes are an enlightening experience for students and audiences alike. After months of careful preparation, students perform for, and then receive feedback and guidance from a master teacher who challenges the student to think in new and critical ways about the piece they’ve prepared. The results are inspiring and serve as a catalyst for students to reach new heights in their own musical explorations. Yet the learning isn’t limited just to the students who perform. In point of fact, any student—regardless of their level of development or whether or not they even play the same instrument—can learn a great deal.

Master Classes are open to the public to observe free of charge, but reservations are required.

RSVP here.

View flyer here.

Violinist Daniel Phillips is co-founder of the Orion String Quartet which will be giving its last concert in April 2024, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln after an illustrious 37-year career. A graduate of Juilliard, his major teachers were his father Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Végh, and George Neikrug.

Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, San Antonio symphonies. He appears regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, St Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Heifetz Institute, Chesapeake Music Festival, the International Musicians Seminar in England, Marlboro Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, where he is co-artistic director. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma.

A judge in the 2022 Leipzig Bach Competition 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition, the 2023 World Bartok Competition and 2024 Prague Spring Competition, Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Bard College Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and their two dachshunds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.