viola | US and Canada
Acclaim
The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective at Wigmore Hall

The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective was launched in 2017 by the violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster (incidentally, they got married last summer). For their Wigmore Hall residency they gathered a starry team of clarinettist Mark Simpson, bassoonist Amy Harman, cellist Laura van der Hejden, horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill, violist Jean-Miguel Hernandez and double bassist Joseph Conyers.

Read More...
Jessica Duchen, TheArtsDesk.com

New players may replace older ones from time to time (cellist Robert Cohen and violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez joined less than two years ago), but the quartet’s well-seasoned culture has endured. Violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico, who have been playing together for more than 32 years, are supremely well matched. Their soft-edged tone and phrasing define a “Fine Arts” sound that Cohen has picked up and that Hernandez accommodates himself to when he isn’t lavishing his gorgeous warm sound on a particularly juicy solo phrase.

 

Read More...
Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post
There is somewhat more overt drama in Zimbalist’s Quartet, and the Slavic modality of the dark opening movement (highlighted in this performance by the gorgeous voice of Juan-Miguel Hernandez’s viola), the sedateness of the Scherzo and the energy of the Finale’s perpetual motion gave this piece a particularly piquant personality. Read More...
Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post
"Hernandez, a versatile artist with an interesting resume..." Read More...
Tom Strini, ThirdCoastDaily.com
A Tone Rich and Full of Depth
This [Harlem Quartet] is an ensemble with a huge, warm sound. Juan-Miguel Hernandez's viola produces a tone easily as rich and full of depth as most cellists manage...
Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post

... violist Juan Miguel Hernandez, played the bittersweet theme in the Andante [of Brahms's String Sextet No. 1 in B flat] with impassioned poise.

Read More...
Vivien Schweitzer, New York Times
Rare Treat: A Stradivarius Set From the Harlem Quartet
Violist Juan Miguel Hernandez drew the sweetest, most sonorous tone from the "Cassavetti" Stradivarius in his hands for the evening.
Charles T. Downey, Washington Post
"Hernandez played with understated virtuosity -- tender, lyrical and loaded with personality". Read More...
PIERRE RUHE, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Total: 8 (Viewing: 1–8)