Michael Hersch’s end stages Makes The New York Times 8 Best Classical Music Moments

The New York premiere of end stages by Composition Department Chair Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition), performed and commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, made The New York Times 8 Best Classical Music Moments this week. James R. Oestreich of The New York Times praised the piece as, “A little-relieved cry of anguish and anger in the face of terminal illness and death. But with a faint tolling of orchestral bells and whimpers in the violins at the end of the second movement, attitude gave way to what seemed a touching glimpse of the suffering soul itself.”