Active as a soloist and chamber musician, cellist Gal Nyska has been praised as an "agile" (New York Times) "prodigious," "spellbinding," and "technically assured" performer (Classical Voice of North Carolina) possessing "a deep and moving purity of sentiment" (the Ellsworth American). One of the leading Israeli cellist of his generation, he most recently triumphed at the Aviv Competitions, Israel's most prestigious contest for emerging musicians, winning both the Rachel and Dov Gottesman cello prize as well as the Meira Gera Audience Prize. Mr. Nyska also recently made his New York solo debut with the Juilliard Orchestra at Avery Fischer Hall under Dennis Russell Davies. Additional performances include solo, chamber music, and recital appearances at the Grand Salle des Invalides (Paris), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Jerusalem Music Center, Henry Crown Theatre, and concerto engagements with the Las Vegas, North Carolina, Bangor, Raleigh, and Durham symphony orchestras, among others.
Committed to the commissioning and performance of new works, Mr. Nyska has performed world and New York premieres of works by some of his generation's most promising composers including Michael Brown, Gilad Cohen, Huang Ruo, Noam Sivan, and Avner Dorman. This year he also collaborates with Michael Brown on a new work for cello and piano, with composer Ronnie Reshef on a work for cello and narrator, and with composer Hadas Pe'ery on a work for cello and electronics, all to be premiered in 2009.
Festival and workshops attended include the Olympic Music Festival, International Musicians' Seminar in Prussia cove, Accademia Chigiana, Kronberg Academy, Aspen Music Festival, Innsbrook Institute and Festival, the Quartet Program, Music in the Valley Institute and Festival, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, and Itzhak Perlman's Chamber Music Workshop. A recent graduate of the Master's degree program at the Juilliard School, Mr. Nyska serves as a teaching assistant to Juilliard String Quartet cellist Joel Krosnick.