HOCKET

Biography

HOCKET is a cutting edge piano duo based in Los Angeles. Lauded as "brilliant" by Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times and as an "adventurous young ensemble" by The New Yorker, members Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff are both pianist-composers dedicated to commissioning and performing contemporary music. They have performed in some of the most exciting festivals and venues across the country including The Bang on Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, MATA Festival in New York City, The Center for New Music in San Francisco, the Carlsbad Music Festival, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Noon to Midnight” Festival. Together, they have premiered over one hundred chamber and solo works and have collaborated with the premier, new music ensembles Eighth Blackbird and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. They have performed concerti with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, USC Thornton Edge, Oberlin Sinfonietta, and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra. HOCKET has received grants from the Presser Foundation and The Earle Brown Music Foundation and has been a selected artist in Firebird Ensemble's Outstanding Young Artists Initiative and Eighth Blackbird’s Blackbird Creative Lab. HOCKET is a Piano Spheres core artist and a performing artist on the Schoenhut Piano Company Artist Roster.

Sarah Gibson is a composer and pianist who has been called “a serious talent to watch” (Atlanta Journal Constitution). Her works have received recognitions such as the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, Victor Herbert ASCAP award, NFMC Marion Richter American Music Composition Award, and first place in the Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. Her Left-hand Piano Concerto was selected as a winner of The University of Southern California’s (USC) New Music for Orchestra competition and was premiered with Sarah at the keyboard. She has received commissions from the Aspen Summer Music Festival and School, L.A. Signal Lab, the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, and soprano Lindsay Kesselman, among others. Gibson’s music has been performed by members of Eighth Blackbird, the American Composers Orchestra, USC Thornton Edge, the USC Symphony, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, HOCKET, L.A. Signal Lab, Aperture Duo, and at various venues across the United States and in Europe. As a pianist, Sarah is a founding member of HOCKET and has also performed with wildUp, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the Atlanta Symphony where she debuted under the direction of Donald Runnicles in 2005.

Sarah holds degrees in Piano and Composition from Indiana University, and a Masters and Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in composition from USC where she is currently faculty in Theory and Analysis. Alongside Artistic Director Andrew Norman, she is the Teaching Artist for the esteemed Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program.

For more information visit www.sarahgibson-music.com.

Thomas Kotcheff is a Los Angeles-based composer and pianist. His compositions have been described as “truly beautiful and inspired” (icareifyoulisten.com) and “explosive” (Gramophone magazine), and have been performed internationally by The Riot Ensemble, wild Up, New York Youth Symphony, Sandbox Percussion, the Argus Quartet, the Lyris Quartet, the Alinde Quartett, USC Thornton Edge, The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, HOCKET, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble amongst others. Thomas has received awards and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presser Foundation, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, BMI, ASCAP, the RED NOTE New Music Festival, the New York Youth Symphony, the National Association of Composers USA, the American Composers Forum, and has been a composition fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's National Composers Intensive, the Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, the Aspen Summer Music Festival and School, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Bennington Chamber Music Conference. As a new music pianist, Thomas has dedicated himself to commissioning and premiering new piano works. He is the pianist and founding member of the Los Angeles based piano duo HOCKET and he holds degrees in composition and piano performance from the Peabody Institute and the University of Southern California.

For more information visit www.ThomasKotcheff.com.