Ohad Ben-Ari (Piano)
Israeli born pianist Ohad Ben-Ari performed at age 12 with the Israeli
Philharmonic Orchestra. The following year he was already enrolled as a student
at the Tel-Aviv University, where he studied piano with Pnina Salzman and
composition with Joseph Dorfman. Ohad has won numerous top prizes at
international competitions, among them the ARD Competition (Munich) and the
coveted Arthur Rubinstein Master Competition. As a result, he received many
invitations to appear as soloist with orchestras around the world.
In 1996 Ohad headed for the USA and set to work as a music producer
specializing in pop and in urban music. In the following years he would work
with top American pop artists, appear in major TV shows and record a vast array
of styles and repertoire, ranging from Classical to Jazz and Pop. Big success
followed his joint venture with his sister, violinist Miri Ben-Ari, who won a
GrammyTM Award while working with Ohad on her solo album for Universal
Records.
A decade later, upon his return to Israel, Ohad joined the faculty of the
School of Music of the Tel-Aviv University, alongside his work in the studio as
a music producer. He also founded the critically acclaimed “Trio Mondrian”, with
whom he now tours regularly in Europe. The Trio has recently released a debut
album for “Challenge Records” and received excellent reviews.
Since 2010 Ohad Ben-Ari resides in Berlin, where he continues his extensive
work as a pianist and composer. His partnership of many years with Berlin based
violinist Guy Braunstein has been reinstated and the two now often record and
perform together. This year Guy has appointed Ohad to be his co-artistic
director at the Bahnhof Rolandseck chamber music festival.
Many of Ohad Ben-Ari’s chamber music arrangements are being performed
worldwide. On the commission of Elena Bashkirova and the 2012 Jerusalem Chamber
Music Festival, Ohad wrote 12 different arrangements of the 12 Seasons by
Tchaikowsky which will be split among all festival’s performances.
In the upcoming concert season 2012/13 Ohad will tour Europe and Asia and
perform as soloist with orchestras as well as a chamber musician in many
European cities. He will visit Hamburg twice next season to play with the
Hamburger Symphoniker, first to perform Bartok 3rd piano concerto with Maestro
Jeffrey Tate, and at the beginning of 2013 to debut his original work for piano
and orchestra – “Tips” – a classical composition that fuses elements drawn from
the world of popular music.
|