January 13, 2009

Michael Melzer, flute

Born in Haifa, 1956.  B.A. from the Tel-Aviv University, and Diplome in Early-Music (both Recorder and Baroque-Flute) from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Netherlands). Winner of the François Shapira Prize (1978) and the first Cylinder Prize of “Omanut La'am,” Israel's Arts Network, (1982).

Frequent soloist with all Israeli orchestras. Guest-conductor with orchestras such as Israel Chamber Orchestra, Haifa Symphony, Israel Camerata and the Israel Sinfonietta Be'er-Sheba. Soloist with Orchestras in Spain, Great Britain (Aberdeen Festival), Norway, Finland, Germany (including the Berliner Philharmonie), Holland, Austria and the US, under the baton of Rudolph Barshai, Frans Bruggen, Iona Brown, Mendi Rodan, Avner Biron, Andrew Laurence King and Shalom Ronly-Riklis. Played in chamber-music ensembles with artists such as Pinchas Zukerman (Israel Festival), Christoph Coin, Nigel Rogers, Maurice Bourg, Jerusalem Quartet, Aviv Quartet, and Shlomo Gronich.

Mr. Melzer designed and directed special productions for the Israel Festival as well as for the Cervantino Festival (Mexico), Barcelona Festival (Spain), and Bnei-Brith Festival (London). He served as Music Director of the Neve-Zedek Theatre, 1981–83, as the Artistic Director of the Renaissance Festival in 2005, and is the Artistic Director of the Voice of Music in the Upper Galilee Festival since 2000.
Mr. Melzer gave master classes at NYU, Boston University, the National Conservatory of Paris and numerous venues in Israel, including the Tel-Aviv Academy and the Jerusalem Music Center. He recorded more than 50 discs, including his own arrangements of Bach's organ music (the Melzer Consort) and Yehezkel Braun's Flute Concerto (for the Schwann-Koch Label).

Three of his students won the François Shapira Prize, and many others are winners of the Academy's competitions through the years, and played as soloists with orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic.
Michael Melzer, considered the founder of artistic recorder-playing in Israel as well as the most prominent artist of the early-music scene in Israel, served as the Deputy Head of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in 1997–2003, and as the Dean of Faculty of Performing Arts 2003–2006. Since 2006 he is the Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the Jerusalem Academy.