Around the Music Festival

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has announced that Nitzan Bartana will be its new concertmaster. Bartana has just completed a one-season trial period. According to the orchestra, she will be the first female concertmaster in the orchestra’s history.

Over the past three years, two concertmasters have left the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra: David Radzynski, who moved to the Cleveland Orchestra and then to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and Dumitru Pocitari, who joined the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. This left Ilya Konovalov, who has held the position since 1997, as the sole remaining concertmaster.

Bartana is a 36-year-old native of Jerusalem. She began violin lessons at the age of five with her grandfather and studied at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, the University of Music Freiburg, Germany, and the Mozarteum University of Salzburg.

During that time, she won numerous international competitions. Since 2018, she has served as second concertmaster of the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland and is also a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra led by Daniel Barenboim.

PHOTO：Zürcher Kammermusik