Spring Benefit Oliver Herbert, cello Mohawk Golf Club

Friday, April 17, 2026 - 5:00 PM

Join us for a festive evening with your music-loving friends featuring CRC’s favorite cellist performing a captivating program followed by wine and sumptuous meal at the picturesque Mohawk Golf Club. All proceeds benefit our Annual Fund.

Oliver Herbert has appeared on the series several times but perhaps his most memorable performance was that of Bach’s complete six Suites. For this program, he frames two of those Suites with a folk-inspired one by Spanish cellist/composer Gaspar Cassadó.

If you would like to support the Spring Benefit further, please consider joining our distinguished Honorary Committee, which provides you with priority seating and other benefits.

Schedule:
- 5:00pm | Concert
- 6:00–6:30pm | Wine and Hors d’oeuvres
- 6:30pm | Plated Dinner

Program:
- Bach: Suite No. 1
- Cassadó: Suite
- Bach: Suite No. 3

Location:
Mohawk Golf Club
1849 Union Street
Schenectady, NY

About Oliver Herbert:
Oliver Herbert is a concert cellist known for performances that combine intensity, clarity, and a strong sense of musical direction. The recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, his work spans solo performance, chamber music, and curatorial projects. As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, working with conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Giancarlo Guerrero, Juanjo Mena, and Alexander Shelley.

Oliver approaches his projects with wide-ranging curiosity, exploring lesser-known repertoire, music of today, and connections that cast familiar works in a new light. His projects have included concert curations for Deutschlandfunk and the TICA Festival in Hong Kong, as well as premieres of works by composers such as Andrew Moses, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, and Helena Winkelman.

As a chamber musician, he appears regularly at leading festivals and venues including Marlboro Music, Verbier Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Rheingau Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Utrecht Festival, 92nd Street Y, and the Ravinia Festival. A highlight of recent seasons was a North American tour with Mitsuko Uchida and musicians from Marlboro Music, including a performance at Carnegie Hall. He has collaborated with artists such as Janine Jansen, Jonathan Biss, and Tabea Zimmermann.

Oliver’s recordings include Haydn’s D Major Cello Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, released by Warner Classics as part of highlights from MTT’s final season as music director. In June 2020, he released his debut album with pianist Xiaohui Yang, Frame of Mind: Fauré and Janáček, featuring the two cello and piano sonatas of Gabriel Fauré alongside Leoš Janáček’s Pohádka (Fairy Tale).

Oliver is the recipient of the 2017 Verbier Festival Jean-Nicolas Firmenich Prize and top prizes at the Lutosławski International Cello Competition, the Klein International String Competition, and the Stulberg International String Competition. In 2025, he was selected for the Orpheum Foundation’s development program for young soloists. He has been featured on PBS’s Now Hear This, NPR’s From the Top, Deutschlandfunk, and German radio including WDR, HR, and ARD, as well as the online interview series Living the Classical Life.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Colburn School, Oliver studied with Carter Brey, Pamela Frank, Clive Greensmith, and Peter Wiley. He is currently a student of Frans Helmerson in the Professional Studies Program at the Kronberg Academy, generously supported by the Nanno Lenz Patronage. He plays on a Guadagnini cello that once belonged to the great Italian cellist Antonio Janigro, on generous loan from the Janigro family.