ARTIST PROFILE

Shai Wosner

BIOGRAPHY

Winner of a 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2005 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Shai Wosner has been described by The New York Times as "a superb pianist" and by The Financial Times as "an artist to follow keenly." Active as a soloist and chamber musician, his uniquely intellectual and poetic approach has caught the attention of audiences and critics alike.

Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 with the Chicago Civic Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim conducting, Mr. Wosner has performed with many major orchestras in the United States including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus, Houston, San Francisco; the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, among others. He has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Lawrence Foster, Zubin Mehta, Peter Oundjian, and Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Highlights of Mr. Wosner's current performing activities include performances of the Schumann Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, Alan Gilbert conducting; recording Beethoven and Chopin recital works for Minnesota Public Radio's "St. Paul Sunday"; chamber music performances in San Francisco, Prague, and Vienna; and his Vienna Philharmonic debut in Salzburg as part of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

Mr. Wosner gave his New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in February 2004 to critical acclaim. He has also given recitals in Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Vancouver, Toronto, Kalamazoo, and on Ravinia's "Rising Stars" series. Summer festival appearances include The Grand Teton Music Festival and the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival. A sought-after chamber music callaborator, Mr. Wosner was a member of Lincoln's Center's Chamber Music Society Two and has performed at chamber music festivals including Bargemusic, the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portand, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and recently performed in duo recital with cellist Claudio Bohorquez at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Abroad, Mr. Wosner has appeared with the Barcelona Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Orchestre National de Belgique, and the Staatskapelle Berlin among others. He made his London Proms debut in 2003 in a performance of Mozart's Concerto for Three Pianos with pianists Daniel Barenboim and Saleem Abboud-Ashkar, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Mr. Wosner attended the first West-Eastern Divan workshop organized by Daniel Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma in Weimar in 1999 and returned annually for many years. He has given recitals in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands and is a regular participant at the annual Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.

Performances of contemporary music are an important component of Mr. Wosner's activities. In January 2000, he performed Bright Sheng's "Red Silk Dance" with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey conducting. More recently, Mr. Wosner performed at the University of California-Berkeley's Edge Festival (June 2003) on a program dedicated to the music of John Adams. Additional appearances in contemporary music frameworks include the Pierre Boulez Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 2001, and the Ars Musica festival in Brussels in 2000 and 2001, where he performed György Ligeti's Piano Concerto under the direction of James Wood. He was also involved there in cooperation with composer Salvatore Sciarrino for a project based on his piano music that was later released on CD ("Cypres"). At the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Mr. Wosner, together with pianist Ju-Ping Song, gave the United States premiere of Per Nørgård's "Unendlicher Empfang."

A prizewinner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1999, Mr. Wosner has received awards in other international piano competitions, notably in Senigallia, Italy, in Palm Beach and at the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv (1995). He has been a recipient of numerous America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships and has been featured on radio and television in the United States, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Israel.

Born in Israel in 1976, Shai Wosner studied for 12 years with Emanuel Krasovsky in Tel Aviv. In addition, he studied composition, theory and improvisation with André Hajdu, with whom he has participated in various improvisation concerts and activities. His studies continued at the Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax.

Mr. Wosner resides in New York City with his wife, Roni Tamari.