Winner of a 2005 Avery Fisher Career
Grant and a 2005 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Shai Wosner
has been described by The New York Times as 'a superb pianist'
and by The Financial Times as 'an artist to follow keenly.'
Active as a soloist and chamber musician, his uniquely intellectual
and poetic approach has caught the attention of audiences
and critics alike.
Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 with
the Chicago Civic Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim conducting,
Wosner has performed with many major orchestras in the United
States including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Chicago,
Columbus, Houston, San Francisco; the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra
of Philadelphia, among others. He has worked with conductors
such as Daniel Barenboim, Lawrence Foster, Zubin Mehta, Peter
Oundjian, and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Highlights of Wosner's current performing
activities include performances of the Schumann Concerto with
the San Francisco Symphony, Alan Gilbert conducting; recording
Beethoven and Chopin recital works for Minnesota Public Radio's "St.
Paul Sunday"; chamber music performances in San Francisco,
Prague, and Vienna; and his Vienna Philharmonic debut in Salzburg
as part of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of
Mozart's birth.
Wosner gave his New York recital debut at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in February 2004 to critical
acclaim. He has also given recitals in Chicago's Orchestra
Hall, Vancouver, Toronto, Kalamazoo, and on Ravinia's "Rising
Stars" series. Summer festival appearances include The Grand
Teton Music Festival and the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival.
A sought-after chamber music collaborator, Wosner was a member
of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two and has performed
at chamber music festivals including Bargemusic, the Chamber
Music Northwest festival in Portland, the Seattle Chamber Music
Society, and recently performed in duo recital with cellist
Claudio Bohorquez at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
Abroad, Wosner has appeared with the Barcelona
Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Gothenburg Symphony,
the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Nieuw
Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Orchestre National de Belgique,
and the Staatskapelle Berlin among others. He made his London
Proms debut in 2003 in a performance of Mozart's Concerto for
Three Pianos with pianists Daniel Barenboim and Saleem Abboud-Ashkar,
and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Wosner attended the first
West-Eastern Divan workshop organized by Daniel Barenboim and
Yo-Yo Ma in Weimar in 1999 and returned annually for many years.
He has given recitals in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands
and is a regular participant at the annual Jerusalem International
Chamber Music Festival.
Performances of contemporary music are an
important component of Wosner's activities. In January 2000,
he performed Bright Sheng's "Red Silk Dance" with the Winnipeg
Symphony Orchestra. Wosner performed at the University of California-Berkeley's
Edge Festival in June 2003 on a program dedicated to the music
of John Adams. Additional appearances in contemporary music
frameworks include the Pierre Boulez Workshop at Carnegie Hall
in 2001, and the Ars Musica festival in Brussels in 2000 and
2001, where he performed Gyšrgy Ligeti's Piano Concerto.
At the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Wosner, together
with pianist Ju-Ping Song, gave the United States premiere
of "Unendlicher Empfang."
A prizewinner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition
in 1999, Wosner has received awards in other international
piano competitions, notably in Senigallia, Italy, in Palm Beach
and at the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv (1995).
Born in Israel in 1976, Shai Wosner studied
for 12 years with Emanuel Krasovsky. In addition, he studied
composition, theory and improvisation with Andre Hajdu, with
whom he has participated in various improvisation concerts
and activities. His studies continued at The Juilliard School
with Emanuel Ax.
Wosner resides in New York City with his wife,
Roni Tamari.