A pianist of unique versatility, TIMOTHY HOFT has been praised for his recent performances. “Hoft’s objective approach to performing new music was especially successful...[his] precise control of dynamics and quiet approach to the keyboard with a perfect technique led to a beautiful, automatic sense of music making...” (Michael Lodico, Ionarts.org). His debut CD, Reflections on Ukrainian Piano Music Vol. I, has also been favorably reviewed. “Here is piano music that needs to be known, piano music that abounds with visceral vibrancy and expressive intensity, not to mention being skillfully and subtly wrought for the instrument. Timothy Hoft’s ardent and caring virtuosity is captured in superb, lifelike sonics. You can’t ask for a more auspicious start to what promises to be an important series.” (Jed Distler, Gramophone critic) “[Hoft's] playing is full of color, with both sensitivity and virtuosity” (James Harrington, American Record Guide). Hoft has given performances as soloist and chamber musician in the concert halls of Ukraine, Poland, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia, England, Scotland, and the U.S., including Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the Lviv National Philharmonic Hall (Lviv, Ukraine), DOM Master Klass (Kyiv, Ukraine), the John F. Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), the Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), the Yamaha Piano Salon (New York), the Ukrainian Institute of America (New York), the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts (Houston), the Getty Center (Los Angeles), the Marble Palace (St. Petersburg, Russia), the Boris Pasternak Museum (Peredelkino, Russia), and the Smith Center (Las Vegas). He has performed with ensembles such as the Lviv Philharmonic, Phillips Camerata, Peabody Camerata, Peabody Wind Ensemble, UNLV Symphony Orchestra, UNLV Wind Ensemble, Henderson Symphony Orchestra, and the Detroit Civic Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of the University of Michigan and the Peabody Conservatory, Hoft holds Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral Degrees in piano performance. His primary teachers were Logan Skelton and Benjamin Pasternack. During his graduate studies, Hoft was awarded a fellowship through the La Gesse Foundation, giving him numerous performances in Europe and in the U.S. He was also granted the Earl Wild Scholarship of the Ivory Classics Foundation, allowing him to study with the legendary pianist, Earl Wild.
Hoft is an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he teaches solo and collaborative piano. Since 2013, when he was introduced to the music of Ukrainian composers by Virko Baley, Hoft has devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to promote this important and largely unknown repertoire in the West. He is currently exploring and performing these works, such as the Nocturnals of Virko Baley, the piano sonatas of Valentyn Sylvestrov, the monumental cycle of 34 Preludes and Fugues by Valentyn Bibik, the piano sonatas of Borys Liatoshynsky, as well as works by Leonid Hrabovsky, Oleh Bezborodko, Oleksandr Shchetynsky, Yevhen Stankovych, Ludmila Yurina, Bohdana Frolyak, Lubawa Sydorenko, and Alla Zagaykevych, for a series of recordings entitled Reflections on Ukrainian Piano Music, released on the Troppe Note/Cambria label.
Other future projects include performances and recordings of Baley’s Partita no. 3 and Songs without Words, Lyatoshynsky’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Hermann Grädener’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, with the violinist Karen Bentley Pollick. The first of these recordings, Music for Emily Dickinson, was released in 2023 on the Toccata Classics label. Aside from performing, Timothy Hoft enjoys composing, transcribing orchestral works for solo piano, reading, playing chess, and spending time with his wife, Anastasia, and their dachshund, Vinny.