"Mr. Wolff and his young charges closed the concert with a bang-up performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6. The Presto finale, with the young players reveling in the thrill of collective virtuosity, was sheer joy."– The New York Times
"Wolff's Shostakovich 10 was powerful, three-dimensional and devastating, and the Atlanta Symphony blossomed by his approach. Much of the opening movement builds to an unbearable tension. Wolff paced it tautly and meaningfully, with understated authority. When the music finally crossed that emotional threshold and plummeted into some dark netherworld of a broken psyche, Wolff did not, would not, relent... Credit Wolff with delivering the crucial essence of a harrowing masterpiece of the 20th century."
"Conductor Hugh Wolff presided over one of the Utah Symphony’s most high-spirited programs of the season on Friday. From Beethoven’s ever-popular “Leonore” Overture No. 3 to Saint-Saëns’ playful Cello Concerto No. 1 to Charles Ives’ invigorating Symphony No. 2, the concert was a sheer delight."
"Under Wolff's careful guidance, the [Minnesota] orchestra gave this music [Adès] the sort of wham-bam-socko performance it needs. Wolff, the former music director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, is a gifted conductor who should be seen here more often."
"The evening's strength was the conductor, Hugh Wolff, an urbane host who without undue Sturm und Drang made Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony, the composer's third, an absolute delight."
Three-time Grammy-nominated conductor Hugh Wolff is a musical firebrand, with "an effortlessly polished sound, shaping his interpretations with impeccable taste" (The New York Times). His compelling performances have earned great critical acclaim across the world, including: "Hugh Wolff stays always at the heart of the music - by the end he held the whole auditorium in suspended silence" (The Washington Post).
Wolff has appeared with all the major American orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Cleveland. He is much in demand in Europe, where he has conducted the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, and the Bavarian and Berlin Radio Orchestras. A regular guest conductor with orchestras in Europe, Japan, Korea, Canada and Australia, he is also a frequent conductor at summer festivals. Currently Laureate Conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra, Wolff was principal conductor of the hr-Sinfonie Orchester (formerly Frankfurt Radio Orchestra) from 1997 to 2006 and maintains a close relationship with that ensemble. He led it on tours of Europe, Japan, and China, and at the Salzburg Festival. Wolff was principal conductor and music director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (1988-2000), with which he recorded twenty discs and toured the United States, Europe, and Japan. Wolff was music director of the New Jersey Symphony (1986-1993) and Principal Conductor of Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival (1994-1997). He began his professional career as associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich.
Wolff's extensive discography includes the complete Beethoven symphonies with the hr- Sinfonie Orchester and music from the baroque to the present. He has recorded or premiered works by John Adams, Stephen Albert, John Corigliano, Brett Dean, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Aaron Jay Kernis, Edgar Meyer, Rodion Shchedrin, Bright Sheng, Michael Torke, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Joan Tower and has collaborated on discs with Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Dawn Upshaw, Jennifer Larmore, Jean-Yves Thibaudet,and jazz guitarist John Scofield. His album with Hilary Hahn won the 2001 Cannes Classical Award.
A graduate of Harvard College, Wolff studied piano with Leon Fleisher and Leonard Shure, composition with George Crumb, Leon Kirchner, and Olivier Messiaen, and conducting with Charles Bruck. In 1985, Wolff was awarded one of the first Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conducting Prizes.
In addition to his performance career, Hugh Wolff is passionate about passing knowledge on to the next generation. As such, he holds the Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood Director of Orchestras Chair at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He and his wife, harpist and writer Judith Kogan, have three sons.