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Northern Exposure – Piano Festivities
Northern Exposure
Rubinstein’s Piano Festivities at Keshet Eilon
25 – 27 December 2025
Thursday, 25 December 2025
17:00 | Mini Piano Marathon Part 1 –
With the Israeli pianists selected for the 2026 Rubinstein Competition
Lior Lifshitz
Ido Zeev
21:00 | The Kid – with cellist Eitan Mikhanovsky
A Journey into the World of Silent Films
Adi Haroni – violin, Bishara Haroni – piano
Part 1 – Introducing the young cellist Eitan Mikhanovsky
Part 2 – Screening of a silent film with live music
with violinist Adi Haroni and pianist Bishara Haroni
Friday, 26 December 2025
11:00 | Morning tour
17:00 | Beating Oud –
A captivating musical encounter with oud artist Taiseer Elias and percussionist Zohar Fresco
21:00 | Chamber Concert
With Elias Elias – violin, Michal Korman – cello, Bishara Haroni – piano
Saturday, 27 December 2025
11:00 | Piano Mini Marathon Part 2 –
With the Israeli pianists selected for the 2026 Rubinstein Competition
Yali Zaken
Itamar Feinberg
Participating artists:
Elias Elias, Taiseer Elias, Bishara Haroni, Adi Haroni, Zohar Fresco, Michal Korman,
Ido Zeev, Yali Zaken, Lior Lifshitz, Itamar Feinberg, Eitan Mikhanovsky
The event is in collaboration with
Starry Night
STARRY NIGHT
A special concert with Yukine Kuroki – winner of the Bronze Medal and the Best Performance of a Classical Concerto at the last Rubinstein Competition (2023). Kuroki impressed the competition judges with her virtuoso and sensitive performances and is considered one of the most outstanding talents in the world of piano today. Since winning the Competition, she has performed a debut recital at Carnegie Hall in New York and Bechstein Hall in London and has appeared in numerous concerts worldwide.
Kuroki will play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 413 with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra conducted by Shmuel Elbaz.
Also on the program: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, with First-Prize winner at the Géza Anda Competition in Zurich (2024) – Ilya Shmukler. Shmukler is an artist with extraordinary technique and rare musical sensitivity, and he has captivated the audience and critics with his brilliant interpretations of classical works. Schmukler’s invitation was made possible within the framework of the cooperation between the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition (Tel Aviv) and the Géza Anda International Competition, in Switzerland.
Israel Chamber Orchestra
Shmuel Elbaz, Conductor
Yukine Kuroki, piano
Ilya Shmukler, piano
Program:
Purchase Tickets >>>
Another concert – a tribute to the residents of Netivot and the surrounding communities of the Western Negev – with Kuroki and Shmukler, and with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra conducted by Shmuel Elbaz, will be held at the Mishkan HaPais Hall in Netivot on March 23, 2025, at 8:00 PM.
Kuroki will also play recitals in Ashdod (March 18), Rehovot (March 19), and Ein Kerem (March 21 at noon).
Kevin Chen – Sydney
KEVIN CHEN
Gold Medalist
at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, 2023
Program
*Program is subject to changes
KEVIN CHEN
Kevin Chen lives in Calgary, Canada, where he studies with Marilyn Engle. Despite his young age, he has already taken part in many famous international competitions, winning 1st Prize at the Liszt Competition in Budapest, 1st Prize at the Mozart Competition in Lugano (junior section) and 1st Prize at the Hilton Head Competition in Washington, 1st Prize at the Concours de Genève Music Competition, and most recently- 1st Prize at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. He has performed with the Calgary, Edmonton, and Minneapolis Symphony Orchestras, among others. Kevin Chen is also an avid composer, with nearly 100 works to his credit, including symphonies and a piano concerto. In 2013, he wrote River Rhapsody in honor of the victims of the High River floods.
Australian Friends of the Arthur Rubinstein
International Music Society
For more details on how to join our Australian Friends, please contact: AUfriends@arims.org.il
Giorgi Gigashvili – New York Recital
at Carnegie Hall
GIORGI GIGASHVILI
Silver Medalist
at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, 2023
Program
GIORGI GIGASHVILI
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Giorgi studied at the Paliashvili Central Music School for Gifted Children and entered the Tbilisi State Conservatory, in the class of Revaz Tavadze. His pianistic career took a decisive turn in 2019 when he won First Prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition (with Martha Argerich as president of the jury) and 3rd Prize and the Audience Favorite Prize at the 62nd Busoni Competition.
The pandemic in 2020 forced Giorgi to remain locked down in Georgia, where he began to write electronic music and popular songs. His passion for the piano was rekindled in 2021 when he received the Hortense Anda- Bührle Special Prize at the 5th Géza Anda Piano Competition in Zurich; followed by an invitation to take part in the KlavierOlymp in Bad Kissingen, where he won 1st Prize and the Audience Prize.
In 2023, Giorgi celebrated another great success: He won the 2nd Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and was also awarded the Audience Favorite, Junior Jury, and Chamber Music prizes.
His debut album, “Meeting My Shadow” featuring Scarlatti, Beethoven, Scriabin, and Messiaen has been highly acclaimed since its release with Alpha Classics in April 2023.
Since autumn 2023, Giorgi has been studying with Kirill Gerstein at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin; before, he studied with Nelson Goerner in Geneva. Gigashvili is supported by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation and the Géza Anda Foundation. In the 2022/23 season, he is a Classeek Ambassador artist. He has been sponsored by Bayer Kultur’s stART academy since 2023. Alongside his career as a classical pianist, he has created with his friends an electronic and experimental music group, Tsduneba, which means ‘temptation’ in Georgian.
Tickets sale will commence on August 1
Presented by theAmerican Friends of the Arthur Rubinstein
International Music Society (AFARIMS)
Juan Perez Floristan – Sydney
address will be sent a week before the event
JUAN PÉREZ FLORISTÁN
Gold Medalist
at the 16th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, 2021
Program
JUAN PÉREZ FLORISTÁN
A prolific winner of major international competitions, Spanish pianist Juan Pérez Floristán most recently received First Prize, Audience Favourite Prize, Beethoven Prize, Chamber Music Prize and the Best Performer of the Israeli Piece at the 16th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, 2021. Other major prizes include Santander International Piano Competition “Paloma O’Shea” 2015, Steinway – Berlin Piano Competition 2015 and Kissinger Klavierolymp 2018.
Floristán has performed in more than 25 countries around the world in leading venues including London’s Wigmore Hall and Royal Albert Hall (BBC Prom 2019), St. Petersburg, Munich, Zürich, Budapest, Venice, Hamburg and widely throughout Spain as well as in major music festivals throughout Europe. He made his NY debut in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, on 14 October 2021. In March 2023 he was invited to perform Rachmaninov’s “Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini” with the Israel Philharmonic in a concert series conducted by Lahav Shani.
His repertoire includes 35 piano concertos ranging from Bach’s 5th Brandenburg Concerto to Ligeti’s Piano Concerto.
Full bio: https://juanperezfloristan.com/en/
Australian Friends of the Arthur Rubinstein
International Music Society
For more details on how to join our Australian Friends, please contact: AUfriends@arims.org.il
Kevin Chen – New York Recital
at Carnegie Hall
KEVIN CHEN
Gold Medalist
at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, 2023
Program
KEVIN CHEN
Kevin Chen lives in Calgary, Canada, where he studies with Marilyn Engle. Despite his young age, he has already taken part in many famous international competitions, winning 1st Prize at the Liszt Competition in Budapest, 1st Prize at the Mozart Competition in Lugano (junior section) and 1st Prize at the Hilton Head Competition in Washington, 1st Prize at the Concours de Genève Music Competition, and most recently- 1st Prize at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. He has performed with the Calgary, Edmonton, and Minneapolis Symphony Orchestras, among others. Kevin Chen is also an avid composer, with nearly 100 works to his credit, including symphonies and a piano concerto. In 2013, he wrote River Rhapsody in honor of the victims of the High River floods.
Presented by theAmerican Friends of the Arthur Rubinstein
International Music Society (AFARIMS)
Kevin Chen – London Recital
London, SW1P 3HA
KEVIN CHEN
Gold Medalist
at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, 2023
Program
KEVIN CHEN
Kevin Chen lives in Calgary, Canada, where he studies with Marilyn Engle. Despite his young age, he has already taken part in many famous international competitions, winning 1st Prize at the Liszt Competition in Budapest, 1st Prize at the Mozart Competition in Lugano (junior section) and 1st Prize at the Hilton Head Competition in Washington, 1st Prize at the Concours de Genève Music Competition, and most recently- 1st Prize at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. He has performed with the Calgary, Edmonton, and Minneapolis Symphony Orchestras, among others. Kevin Chen is also an avid composer, with nearly 100 works to his credit, including symphonies and a piano concerto. In 2013, he wrote River Rhapsody in honor of the victims of the High River floods.
Presented by theUK Friends of the Arthur Rubinstein
International Music Society
For more details on how to join our UK Friends, please contact: competition@arims.org.il
Evgeny Kissin – A tribute recital
The Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society is proud to present:
Evgeny Kissin – A tribute recital
to the Rubinstein Piano Master Competition and to Arthur Rubinstein
“Arthur Rubinstein,” says Kissin “has always been one of my heroes, both as one of the greatest pianists in history whose art is very close to my heart and as an outstanding human being: a true man of the world and at the same time a proud Jew and supporter of Israel. Even though I have never taken part in any competitions myself, I have a year’s long relationship to the Arthur Rubinstein Competition. The very first solo recital I played in Israel back in 1994 was for the benefit of this Competition. For many years I was good friends with the Competition’s founder and long-time director Jan (Jasha) Bistrizky, we spent lots of time together all over the world, and I’ll always cherish those moments. It is wonderful that the Arthur Rubinstein Competition continues to exist and flourish, and I am very happy to play another concert as a tribute to it.”
Program:
“ALL THE HALL MARKS OF HIS GENIUS – AND ONE DOES NOT USE THE WORD LIGHTLY – WERE ON DISPLAY: THE RICH, SONOROUS TONE, THE DAZZLING FINGERWORK AND, ABOVE ALL, THE INSPIRED FANTASY. SO COMPELLING IS KISSIN’S PIANISM, SO FRESH HIS RESPONSE TO EVEN THE MOST FAMILIAR PHRASES, THAT ONE HANGS ON EVERY NOTE. THE END OF THE SLOW MOVEMENT FOUND ME GRIPPING THE ARMREST OF MY SEAT, MESMERIZED BY THE POETRY OF HIS READING.”
The Times, May 1999
Evgeny Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971 and began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at the age of two. At six years old, he entered a special school for gifted children, the Moscow Gnessin School of Music, where he was a student of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, who has remained his only teacher. At the age of ten, he made his concerto debut playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 466 and gave his first solo recital in Moscow one year later. He came to international attention in March 1984 when, at the age of twelve, he performed Chopin’s Piano Concertos 1 and 2 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic under Dmitri Kitaenko. This concert was recorded live by Melodia, and a two-LP album was released the following year. During the next two years, several Kissin performances in Moscow were recorded live and five more LPs were released by Melodia.
Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan. In 1987 he made his West European debut at the Berlin Festival. In 1988 he toured Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov and also made his London debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. In December of the same year, he performed with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in a New Year’s concert which was broadcast internationally, with the performance repeated the following year at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Audio and video recordings of the New Year’s concert were made by Deutsche Grammophon.
In 1990 Kissin made his first appearance at the BBC Promenade Concerts in London and that same year made his North American debut, performing both Chopin piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta. The following week he opened Carnegie Hall’s Centennial season with a spectacular debut recital, which was recorded live by BMG Classics.
Musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Kissin. In 1987 he received the Crystal Prize from the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year 1986 (which was his first performance in Japan). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy. He was a special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997 he received the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic, and again, the youngest-ever awardee. He was the first pianist to be invited to give a recital at the BBC Proms (1997), and, in the 2000 season, was the first concerto soloist ever to be invited to play in the Proms opening concert. In May 2001 Kissin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music. In December 2003 in Moscow, he received the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia’s highest musical honors. In June 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was also awarded the 2005 Herbert von Karajan Music Prize. Evgeny Kissin is an Honorary Doctor of the Hong Kong University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheba.
Mr. Kissin’s recordings have also received numerous awards and accolades, having contributed significantly to the library of masterpieces recorded by the world’s greatest performers. Past awards have included the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands, Grammy awards, and the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France.
*The right to changes is reserved
PIANO FESTIVITIES 2022
AT PASTORAL, KFAR BLUM
Piano Festivities
with Winners of International Competitions
hosted by PASTORAL, Kfar Blum
1 – 3 December 2022
In memory of Jan Jacob Bistrizky
Piano recital: Tamar Makharadze (Georgia)
Recipient of the medal of honor in the Maria Canals 2021 competition
Program
Piano recital: Alim Beisembayev (Kazakhstan)
The winner of the first prize in the Leeds 2021 competition
Program
Threesomes
Yosef Bardanashvili – Piano Trio No. 2 (“Romantic”)
A conversation with Alexander Korsantia about Georgian music and its influences
Mozart – Piano Trio in G Major K.564
Georgian folk songs
Jazz trio with pianist Beka Gochiashvili (Georgia)
The award-winning Georgian international jazz star Gochiashvili performed at New York’s Blue Note and recorded a duet album with the legendary Chick Corea – pastorally presenting a unique jazz evening.
A piano recital Alexander Korsantia, winner of the first prize in the Rubinstein competition, 1995
Program
Tamar Makharadze, David Samokha, Ofri Nehemiah, Matan Dagan, Michal Korman
Cunmo Yin at Carnegie
CUNMO YIN
Bronze Medalist
at the 16th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, 2021
Program
CUNMO YIN
Cunmo Yin was the Bronze Medalist at the 16th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, which took place in April-May 2021. His previous achievements include 1st Prize and Chamber Music Special Prize at the International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn (2019), Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize Piano Academy Eppan (2019), 1st Prize and Public Special Prize at the A. Scriabin International Piano Competition (2018), 2nd Prize and Prize of the “Verein Junger Musiker Deutschland” at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Conservatory Competition (2018).
Born in China in 1993, Cunmo received his first piano lessons at the age of 9 and had his first concert a few months later. Five years later, at the age of 14, he recorded a CD with all of Franz Liszt’s transcendent etudes, an unbelievably virtuosic achievement. In 2009 he won 2nd prize at the Shanghai Piano Competition while being the youngest competitor.
Yin continued his studies at the Central Music Conservatory in Beijing and the Music Academy in Shanghai. He is currently studying at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover with Professor Gerrit Zitterbart, and with Andrea Bonatta since 2019.
Yin’s performances include numerous recitals throughout China- Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, and Sichuan. There he played in the most famous concert halls, such as the National Centre for the Performing in Beijing, Nanjing Great Hall of the People, Shanghai Music Hall, Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, and others.
He also played with orchestras such as the Beijing (Peking) Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Opera Philharmonic, the Xiamen Philharmonic, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in America, the Orchestra of the Technical University of Braunschweig, and most recently with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Cunmo Yin currently teaches at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.
Presented by theAmerican Friends of the Arthur Rubinstein
International Music Society (AFARIMS)
