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DAVID FUNG, Piano
David Fung garnered international attention as a winner in two of the “top five” international piano competitions – the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv and the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels.
Mr. Fung appears regularly with the world’s premier orchestras including Cleveland, Israel Philharmonic, Israel Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber, National Orchestra of Belgium, National Taiwan Symphony and New Japan Philharmonic. In 2016, Mr. Fung performed his highly acclaimed debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival, as well as his New York recital debut presented by Lincoln Center’s Great Performers. In 2017-18, he has solo recital debuts at the Brussels Piano Festival and the Kennedy Center, and performances with Orpheus, Albany Symphony, and Marin Symphony.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Fung is a frequent guest artist at prestigious festivals worldwide. Festival highlights include the Aspen Music, Blossom Music, Edinburgh, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and Ravinia Festival.
Mr. Fung is a Steinway Artist. Learn more about the artist, at WWW.DAVIDFUNG.COM

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NABEEL HAYEK, Piano
17 years old Nabeel Hayek, started learning piano at age seven at the Polyphony Conservatory in Nazareth, Israel, with Mr. Ron Trachtman. In 2016 he started studying with Prof. Asaf Zohar in Tel Aviv. He participated in masterclasses with Murray Perahia, Tatiana Zelikman, Aquiles Delle Vigne, Victor Rosenbaum, Ilana Vered, Emmanuel Krasovsky, Daniel Hoexter, Michael Wladkowski and others.
Nabeel participated in Music Fest Perugia in Italy, Primavera Pianistica in Belgium and Tel Hai International Piano Masterclasses in Israel. He is a recipient of the Dalia Maroz scholarship, won two scholarships by America-Israel Cultural Foundation and three scholarships from Zfunot Tarbut organization.
Nabeel won 2^nd prize at the Pnina Salzman Competition, 2013.
In 2017, he gained 1^st prize at The Voice of Music – Young Artist Competition and performed Schumann’s piano concerto with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Uri Segal. He was later invited to play a recital in Hong Kong and record for the Hong Kong radio. In addition, he received a prize for the best performance of an Israeli composition at the same competition and was invited to play at the Israeli Music Festival.

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GIL SHARON, Violin
Gil Sharon was born in Bucharest, Romania and immigrated as a child to Israel. In 1971, after moving to The Netherlands, he won the first prize at the “International Emily Anderson Violin Competiti­on” in London which marked the beginning of his international career.
In 1992 he founded the Amati Ensemble, a chamber music ensemble that perfor­ms at the highest possible level and in many different formations, from duo to full-scale chamber orchestra. The Amati Ensemble has released numerous CDs and recor­ded a series of television productions and since 1995 features in its own chamber music series in the city of Maastricht (The Netherlands).
Gil Sharon’s reputation as a soloist leads him to perform with various orchestras and to give recitals in Europe, Israel, Canada and the United States. He is a frequent guest at international Music festivals including the Pablo Casals festival in Prades (France), Chamber Music Festival in Giverny (France), Festival of the Sound (Canada), Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, etc.
Gil Sharon also performs frequently as viola player, in recitals as well as in chamber music concerts and numerous festivals where he performed among others with the Tokyo Quartet, the Talich Quartet, Gryphon Trio, etc.
He gave master-classes at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Fontainebleau (France) and in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and is guest professor at the Maastricht Academy of Music.
In January 2018, Gil Sharon became a member of the Fine Arts Quartet playing the viola.
In 1997 Gil Sharon was honoured with the Dutch Royal Award “Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau” by HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for his outstanding merits in the domain of chamber music.

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THE ISRAEL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The ICO was founded in 1965 by Gary Bertini who served as its Artistic Director and conductor for 10 years. Since 2015/2016 Concert Season, Ariel Zuckermann serves as Music Director of the ICO.
The orchestra performs a varied repertoire ranging from baroque through current compositions in over 100 concerts per year to subscribers in both the central and the outskirts of Israel, including children and students concerts. Furthermore the ICO tours extensively in Europe, USA, Canada, South America and the Far East and takes part in prestigious international music festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, festivals in Istanbul, Helsinki, Athens, Pompeii, Sofia and Mitte Europa, Hong Kong and many more.
The Orchestra has recorded for Chandos, Naxos, Music Masters, The Israel Music Institute (IMI), Koch and Teldec.
Many well-known artists have performed with the Israel Chamber Orchestra: Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Miriam Fried, Joseph Kalichstein, Kryzstof Penderecki, Christoph Eschenbach, Yoel Levi, Jean Pierre Rampal, Paul Tortelier, Heinrich Schiff, Heinz Holliger, Sergiu Commissiona, Claude Frank, David Shallon, Tabea Zimmerman, and others.
The orchestra turns to broad audiences by assimilating various musical cultures and styles and collaborating with other art forms – musical theatre (Les Miserables with Habima Theater), Israeli pop music (Shlomo Gronich, Micha Shitrit, and David D’or), tribute concerts to rock bands such as The Beatles, Queen, Abba, Pink Floyd, and performing folk and world music which connects with the various communities in the Israeli population, performances such as tribute to the Lebanese singer Fairuz, Jazz music, Russian folk songs, Argentinian tango and more.
The orchestra is supported by the ministry of culture and sports as well as by the Tel-Aviv Municipality.

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YARON GOTTFRIED, Conductor
Yaron Gottfried is a conductor, composer and pianist – a multidisciplinary musician who bridges classical, contemporary and jazz music. He held the position of Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Netanya-Kibbutz Orchestra during 2002-2013. He graduated the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, under Maestro Mendi Rodan.
In 2014 he was awarded the “Israeli Prime Minister’s Award for Composers”.
Gottfried is a frequent guest at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and he is regularly invited to conduct major orchestras worldwide such as: WDR Funkhausorchester, Maggio Musicale Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing Symphony, Tbilisi Symphony ,Thuringen Symphony, Kodaly Philharmonic Orchestra Debrecen, New Chamber Orchestra and Chorus of Potsdam, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Israel Symphony Rishon Le Zion, Jerusalem Symphony, Camerata Jerusalem, Raanana Symphonette, Beer-Sheva Sinfonietta among others.
His works are published by SIKORSKI Music Publishing. Gottfried is head of the Composition and Conducting Department at “Rimon School for Contemporary music and Jazz”.