​OFRA YITZHAKI

Ofra Yitzhaki was described by the New York Magazine as “downright sensational” and by the Israeli Ha'aretz Daily as“a profound, virtuoso artist”. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree from the Juilliard School in New York and is a winner of the Carnegie Hall Millennium Piano Book Competition. With repertoire ranging from Bach and his contemporaries to the composers of her own generation, her recital engagements have taken her to New York's Lincoln Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, Germany's Klavierfestival Ruhr, Berlin Philharmonie's Chamber Music Hall, the Tel Aviv Museum, the Jerusalem Theater, Taiwan's National Concert Hall and Korea's National Arts-Center, among others. 

Yitzhaki's activity as a soloist in the last seasons includes performing Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Tal's Piano Concerto with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Chopin's 2nd Concerto with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra and  Ligeti's Piano Concerto with the Israel Contemporary Players, among others. Her recent recital programs, performed in Israeli and Europe,  include the entire Second Book of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" as well as programs of new Israeli music. She also created and performed with actors several programs devoted to the music of Mozart and of Schuamnn and Brahms and combining their piano works with texts from their letters.


Ofra Yitzhaki started her piano lessons in Tel-Aviv with Dr. Noa Blass, and played her debut at the Tel-Aviv Museum at age eight. She continued her studies with Dr. Zecharia Plavin till the completion of her education at the Jerusalem Academy of Music. Subsequently, she became the recipient of the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship at the Juilliard School. For her pianistic and scholastic achievements, she was awarded a Doctorate of Musical Art Degree inPiano Performance from the Juilliard School. Following her participation in the Weimar Master classes in Germany, she was invited by the legendary Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda for a private study, focusing on music by Bach and First Viennese School. 

Yitzhaki gave her American debut after winning the Concerto Competition of the TCU/ Cliburn Piano Institute, as a soloist with the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra in Texas. Her New York concerto debut followed a few years later, as a soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. 

As a recitalist, her recognition rose greatly when being invited to perform at Carnegie Hall world premieres of piano music by Milton Babbitt and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. A subsequent invitation by Carnegie Hall’s director at the time, Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, to perform at Germany’s Klavierfestival Ruhr, resulted in her European debut, described by the German press as "An Evening with Soul, Poetry and Glorious Sounds".  A few years later she was invited by the prestigious German Schierse Foundation to give her Berlin Debut Recital at the chamber music hall of the Berlin Philharmonie. 

In addition to Yitzhaki's concerts of classical repertoire, she is also an avid performer of modern and contemporary music and works in close cooperation with many contemporary composers. Among her new music performances are solo recitals at New York's MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) and at the "Israel Music Fest", as well as performances with leading international new music groups, such as the Parisian Ensemble Intercontemporain, the German "United Berlin' and "Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart", and the American "New York Virtuoso Singers".  Her concert-lectures about Israeli piano music, based on her Doctorate dissertation on the topic, have taken her to Cultural and Academic centers across Israel, Germany and the U.S. 

Ofra Yitzhaki recorded for the German Culture Radio, the Israeli Classical Radio and New York's Classical Radio WQXR, as well as for the Yamaha and Albany labels. In Spring 2020 she will be recording the piano works of composer Joseph Tal for the Hessischer Rundfunk, Germany.  

Yitzhaki lives with her family in Tel Aviv and teaches at the Tel Aviv University, Buchmann-Mehta School of Music. She is a jury member on various competitions, such as the Israel Prime Minister Prize for  Composers and the American-Israel Foundation's Competition for young musicians.