Russell Hirshfield

Pianist Russell Hirshfield has received critical acclaim for his original and powerful interpretive insights across a wide repertoire. He has performed in recitals regularly throughout the world, giving concerts across the United States, Brazil, China, Belgium, England, Serbia, Costa Rica, and South Africa, including recent performances at the Sheldonian Theater and Holywell Music Room in Oxford, and the Royal Flemish Academy in Brussels. His latest solo recording, ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: EARLY WORKS (Navona Records, 2020) has been programed in radio broadcasts in at least 20 countries. It features a brilliant program of Scriabin’s earlier, and lesser-known, works for solo piano. Acclaim for ALEXANDER SCRIABIN – EARLY WORKS, in International Piano, Pianist Magazine, and Fanfare led to an invitation to perform the Scriabin Piano Concerto with the Oxford Philharmonic, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. 

His recording Seeker – The Piano Music of Piet Swerts (Phaedra Records) was released in 2017, featured in Europe on Belgian Radio Klara, and received critical acclaim in Holland (Opusklassiek), Belgium (Flanders Art Magazine) and the United States (American Record Guide). Mad Dances – American Music for Saxophone and Piano, with saxophonist Dan Goble, was released by Albany Records in 2010.

Hirshfield trained in New Haven CT and later studied at the Eastman School of Music, Boston University, and the University of Colorado, studying with Robert Spillman, James Avery, Anthony di Bonaventura, and Alvin Chow. He is Professor of Music at Western Connecticut State University. Hirshfield has presented master classes and conference lectures throughout the United States and abroad. He was a member of the Artist Faculty for the 2022 Bermuda Piano Festival and also presented at the 2019 International Piano Festival in Bačka Palanka, Serbia, the 2015 Piano Master Class Series at New York University, and the 2013 Oxford Piano Festival.