Yaron Gottfried

Conductor composer and pianist Yaron Gottfried is one of the most prominent musicians of the young generation in Israel -a multidisciplinary musician who bridges classical, jazz and contemporary music. Since 2002 he holds the position of Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Israel Kibbutz Orchestra. Under his creative artistic leadership, the orchestra has become one of Israel's leading professional orchestras, packed halls, rave reviews and over 120 concerts in a season.While still in his teens Yaron studied composition and orchestral conducting with Prof. Noam Sheriff in Tel-Aviv. He graduated his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem under Maestro Mendi Rodan. Gottfried has also served for 7 years as professor for conducting and music studies at the “Rimon School for Contemporary Music” and at the Jerusalem Rubin academy of Music.Maestro Gottfried is regularly invited to conduct and to be featured as a soloist with all of Israel's top orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, the Haifa Symphony and the Jerusalem (IBA) Orchestras, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Sinfonietta Beer Sheva and the Jerusalem Camerata . His guest conducting appearances include the Budapest concert Symphony Orchestra (Mav), the Duna Symphony Orchestra, the Debrecen Philharmonic, the New Chamber Orchestra of Potsdam, the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra the Salta Symphony (Argentina), the Vancouver Symphony and La-Cross Symphony orchestra, among others.Recently, Yaron Gottfried was appointed as the artistic director of the “Villa Meltchet Classical Festival”.Gottfried’s compositions have gained him high regard and acclaim and are regularly performed by orchestras in Israel and worldwide and often broadcasted on radio and television. His “Capriol Jazz Suite” and “The Well tempered Unbalanced Piano “ written for a Jazz Trio and Orchestra were performed over 30 times. In 2006 he conducted from the piano the premiere of his work “Mozart swings “ composed for orchestra and Jazz trio and commissioned by the Neuer Kammer orchester Potsdam together with the Ra'anana Symphonette Orchestra. In 2007 His "Irish Suites" was performed by the Santa Barbara Symphony and his Double Concerto for 2 Violins was performed at the “Armonia” Festival in Italy and praised by the critics. Among his works are Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra , Concerto for 2 marimbas, symphonic works for large orchestra ,chamber works and many orchestral arrangements.Gottfried is the winner of many awards and prizes, to name a few: The Israeli Foundation for Excellence has selected Maestro Gottfried as its chosen artist for 2003-07. He is a member of the prestigious MacDowell Colony in the USA. Still in his early twenty’s he won the first prize in a conducting competition organized by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in cooperation with the America-Israel Cultural Fund. He is also the recipient of the first prize for Jazz composition of the Red Sea International Jazz Festival, and the recipient of grants from the America -Israel fund as Pianist, Conductor and Composer.The wide scope of Gottfried musical interests includes jazz. He is a first class jazz pianist, who has performed with internationally acclaimed jazz artists such as Eddie Gomez, Didier Lockwood, Dave Liebman, Ira Sullivan, Georgie Fame, Kitty Margolis, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath and many others. In 2004 the Israeli Office of Foreign Affairs invited him with his trio to represent Israel at the “Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival” in Rome.