About Saint Mike

The Saint Michael Trio is Silicon Valley’s update to the classical music scene. Established in 2007, the group has vaulted to the front ranks of the musical establishment and won accolades from the national press—and yet they’re not your ordinary chamber artists.

They’re stunning virtuosi, to be sure, but they can’t be neatly categorized. For one thing, their repertoire spans the classics to contemporary, including the jazz greats and their own arrangements of popular and even rock tunes. For another, their hallmark is mixing all of it into a single concert.

But they’re also different because of the way their make all their concerts interesting, funny, and thoroughly accessible, engaging audiences in the music in a way few performers can. Some think it’s because they’re regular guys coming out of Silicon Valley’s tech sector, but to hear them is to understand there is nothing ordinary about The Saint Michael Trio.

In 2008 the group was named Musicians in Residence at Menlo College, where they teach master classes and provide a stream of community musical events. In 2010 they were named affiliated artists at Notre Dame de Namur University where they also maintain a regular concert schedule.

Though classically trained and highly experienced on the concert stage, each of the artists have thriving careers in the private sector:

  • Violinist DANIEL CHER won the undergraduate music prize at Stanford University and his concerto appearances include the Orchestra New England and the New Haven Symphony. A medical doctor, he leads clinical trials for Chestnut Medical Technologies.
  • Cellist MICHEL FLEXER performed throughout his youth with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra; while a student at Harvard he studied with Bernard Greenhouse at the New England Conservatory. A software engineer and a serial entrepreneur, he has worked most recently with C3, Gain Technologies and Siebel Systems.
  • Pianist RUSSELL HANCOCK has appeared as concerto soloist with symphonies throughout the United States and his worldwide appearances include recitals from Taipei to Tapachula, Mexico. A member of the public policy faculty at Stanford, by day he is President & CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley.