Performers

Yonah Zur

An avid promoter of new music, Yonah Zur has given world premieres of works by Lukas Foss, Kaija Saariaho, Claudio Spies, and by his father, composer Menachem Zur, as well as many US premieres including works by Elliot Carter and Mrs. Saariaho. In addition, he regularly premieres works by promising young composers. He is a member of the String Orchestra of New York City.

Mr. Zur has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York, and has performed at the Tanglewood, Yellow Barn, and Marlboro music festivals, as well as the Cité de la Musique in Paris and throughout his native Israel.  Having spent numerous summers at the Tanglewood Music Center, he was the recipient of the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize 2001, and in the following summer he was a member of the New Fromm Players—a group created solely for the performance of new music.  Mr. Zur was a participant at the Academy of 20th Century Music of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris in 1999.

Mr. Zur’s chamber music collaborators have included Richard Goode, Samuel Rhodes, Marcy Rosen, and Arnold Steinhardt. He has appeared as soloist with the chamber orchestra of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and with the Israel Defense Force Education Corps Orchestra.  His orchestral experience includes serving as concertmaster for the Juilliard Symphony and Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and the chamber orchestra of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and he has played under the batons of Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, David Robertson and Sandor Vegh. 

Mr. Zur received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School in May 2001, having studied with Robert Mann.  He received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1999 from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance having studied with Avi Abramovich, while serving three years in the Israeli Army as a member of the unit for outstanding musicians. 

Mr. Zur devotes much of his time to education as an instructor at Opus 118—Harlem School of Music, as a coach for the strings of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and through numerous outreach programs. He also plays the viola, and pursues an interest in conducting.  He was a regular recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation awards from 1995 through 2001.  He was a recipient of the C. V. Starr Scholarship at The Juilliard School, and his summers at Tanglewood were made possible by the generosity of Lola and Ed Jaffe.

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