Giora Schmidt, violin

Hailed by The Miami Herald for recalling "Perlman in his prime," violinist Giora Schmidt is quickly establishing himself as a virtuoso of the grand tradition, with a distinctive sound. His performances are illuminated by a richness of color and effortless technique, making Giora one of the most commanding young artists on the stage today.

He has appeared with numerous symphony orchestras across North America, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, New Jersey, Fort Worth, San Diego, Vancouver, Toronto, and the Israel Philharmonic. In 2003, he made his Carnegie Hall debut performing the Barber Violin Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony.

In recital, Giora has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Ravinia Rising Stars series, San Francisco Performances, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Tokyo’s Musashino Cultural Hall. A passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated with eminent musicians including Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum and Michael Tree. He is a regular participant at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and frequently performs with pianist Navah Perlman and cellist Zuill Bailey as part of the Perlman/Schmidt/Bailey Trio.

Born in 1983 to professional Israeli musicians, Giora began playing the violin at the age of four. At 13, he met Maestro Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program and at 16 was invited by Perlman to study under him full-time at Juilliard in the Pre-College Division. Giora continued his studies with Perlman at The Juilliard School and with the late Dorothy DeLay.

Giora was the First Prize winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Greenfield Competition in 2000, the recipient of a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 2005 won the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award. His debut recital disc Vocalise is currently available on Allegro/Endeavour Classics.

ACCOMPANIST

Michal Kalekin-Schmidt, pianist and cellist, is currently on the faculty at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges and the University of Pennsylvania. She has performed in Canada, England, France, Israel, South Korea, Sweden as well as in the U.S., and has been a featured artist on WHYY in Philadelphia and Kol Hamusica in Israel. In 2006 and 2008 Michal was one of an international group of cellists on the faculty of the International Cello Festival in Israel.

Michal received her doctorate from Temple University and master's from the University of the Arts. As an undergraduate, she studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she received an Artist Diploma for both piano and cello. In her native Israel, Michal studied at the Tel Aviv University-Rubin Academy of Music. In the U.S., she studied piano with Claude Frank, Peter Serkin, and Raquel Adonaylo, and cello with David Soyer, Lorne Munroe, and Jeffery Solow. She has participated in master classes and chamber music coachings with William Pleeth, Mischa Maisky, Lynn Harrell, Joeseph Gingold, Felix Galimir, and Karen Tuttle.

Michal is a member of the Network of New Music in Philadelphia, a group dedicated to performances of contemporary music. In the current season, Michal will perform recitals dedicated to the works of Robert Schumann, marking the 200th anniversary of his birth. She also performs at Haverford College’s Music and Conversations and at the University of Pennsylvania’s College House series