David Finckel

Biography

David Finckel and Wu Han are among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. They are recipients of Musical America’s Musicians of the Year award, one of the highest honors granted by the music industry. The energy, imagination, and integrity they bring to their multifaceted endeavors as concert performers, artistic directors, recording artists, educators, and cultural entrepreneurs go unmatched.

Highlights of their 2019–20 season include a new CD release, a national PBS television special, a new residency appointment, a busy international tour schedule, along with multiple performances with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) in the United States, Taiwan and Columbia.

David Finckel and Wu Han are currently in their third term as Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Under their leadership, CMS is celebrating three global broadcasting initiatives bringing chamber music to new audiences around the world, via partnerships with Medici TV, Radio Television Hong Kong and the All Arts broadcast channel. David and Wu Han are the founders and Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo in Silicon Valley, and of Chamber Music Today, a festival held in Seoul, South Korea. Wolf Trap appointed Wu Han to serve as Artistic Advisor of its Chamber Music at the Barns series, and this season, she is Montclair State University’s Artist in Residence.

Leaders of the classical recording industry, they created ArtistLed in 1997, the first musician-directed and internet-based classical recording company. David Finckel and Wu Han have also overseen the establishment of the CMS Studio Recordings label, the Society’s partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, CMS’s live stream programming, and Music@Menlo LIVE, which has been praised as “the most ambitious recording project of any classical music festival in the world” (San Jose Mercury News).

David Finckel and Wu Han have received universal praise for their passionate commitment to nurturing the artistic growth of countless young artists through a wide array of educational initiatives. Under their leadership at CMS, the Bowers Program identifies and inducts the finest young chamber artists into the entire spectrum of CMS activities. As Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, their Chamber Music Institute has provided hundreds of students with incomparable, immersive musical experiences over seventeen summers. From 2009-2018, David Finckel and Wu Han directed the LG Chamber Music School in South Korea, which served dozens of young musicians annually, and they also led an intensive chamber music studio at the Aspen Music Festival and School. David Finckel and Wu Han’s website recently launched a new initiative which addresses the challenges and opportunities facing today’s classical music performers and presenters.
David Finckel and Wu Han reside in New York.