Feb. 18 , 2010

Michal Tal

Dr. Michal Tal is active in a variety of musical fields: solo and chamber music performance, the performance and promotion of new music, teaching, coaching and supervising young teachers, directing musical and pedagogical projects, as well as continually seeking new experiences in her field. Michal Tal was born in Tel Aviv and started piano lessons when she was five years old. At the age of sixteen she performed as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then she played with all leading orchestras in Israel, Europe, and the U.S., including the Virginia and Dallas Symphonies, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, the Munster Symphony, and the Dutch Radio Orchestra. She played under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, Eduardo Mata, and Luciano Berio. Michal Tal participated in numerous concerts and special festivals at the Carnegie Recital Hall, the Tel Aviv Museum, the Tanglewood Festival, the Lincoln Center "Focus" Festival, the festival for Israeli Music in Koln, the Israel Festival, and the Kfar Blum Chamber Music Festival. She has made more than 40 live and studio recordings for the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Michal Tal is the prize winner of many competitions, including first prize at the international competition in Dallas, first prize at the Jerusalem Symphony Competition, the Ministry of Education and Culture prize in 2000 and 2005, and has won scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Michal Tal has collaborated with numerous Israeli composers and recorded four CDs of new Israeli music. In 2003 she founded with Nitay & Hillel Zori the Israeli Chamber Music Club, specializing in new Israeli music. The ensemble performed and recorded over 50 Israeli works. Michal Tal studied at The Tel Aviv Academy of music, at Indiana University, at the Juilliard School, and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook with Richard Goode, Leon Fleischer, and Gilbert Kalish. She was coached by Janos Starker, Joseph Gingold, James Buswell, Julius Levinne, and Ray De Roche. In 2005 she received her PhD in Musicology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is the pedagogic director of the Givatayim Conservatory. She also teaches and coaches at the Buchman-Mehta school of music and at the Jerusalem Music Center, and conducts master classes and special workshops in Israel and in New York.