Hillel Zori won the gold medal at the 1986 Maria Canals Competition, and prizes at the Rostropovich, Whitaker USA, Geneva, Stradivarius in Cremona, Shapira and Jackson awards in Tanglewood. He won the America Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship; studied with Uzi Wiesel at the Tel-Aviv Academy of Music, graduating with honors; and with Bernard Greenhouse in the USA. In 2008 Zubin Mehta invited him to perform Bruch’s Kol Nidrei at the UN General Assembly, New York on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Zori has composed a virtuoso suite for cello and orchestra on themes from Carmen, a Fantasy for Voice, a String Trio, and ‘Carmel’ – songs for voice and chamber ensemble.
He teaches chamber and orchestral music at the Jerusalem Music Center and is a professor at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University.

Hillel’s CD anthology ‘Inspirales’ was chosen as the BBC’s “Disc of the Week”.