Eran Zur: Kreuzberg Sonata

biographies

Amir Zoref is a highly established musician, guitar player, music producer and a composer of many beautiful songs that were embraced by the Israeli audience and radio. He is a music producer of around 30 Israeli Albums and worked with musicians like: Shalom Chanoch, Yehudit Ravitz, Evyatar Banai, Knesiat hasechel, Girafot and more. Amir Zoref is Sivan Shavit’s partner in life and in music, both wrote all songs of shavit, and Zoref is the music producer and co arranger of all of shavit’s songs.

Avshalom Caspi is a composer based in London and Berlin. Trained at the Royal College of Music, he composes for orchestral ensembles, voices and electronics. His music has been featured in over 40 film, TV and theater projects – i. e. by Pedro Almodóvar, Anne Lister or Ian Brown – and is winner of Best Score at the Shanghai International Film Festival 2012 and Goya Nominee 2012. Caspi has also collaborated with bands such as Snow Patrol, Doves and Bloc Party on orchestral and choral arrangements for both recording and live projects. More info here.

American born Chris Farr, who currently resides in Berlin, Germany, made the transatlantic move after 7 years in the NYC music scene. A graduate of Berklee College of Music (’99-’02), Farr was given a scholarship to the college and was asked to play the Commencement concert in ’02 honoring Shirley Horn and David Foster. He had the privilege of studying with drum greats Dave Dicenso, Kenwood Dennard, Jonathan Joseph, and Jackie Santos. Farr has performed throughout the U.S., U.K. and Europe as both a headliner and support act with artists such as Hiromi, Albert Lee, Johnny A, Jon Faddis, Oli Rockberger, James Burton, Emma Elisabeth, Kinbom and Keßner, Sophie Auster and the Moka Efti Orchestra.

Israeli singer, composer and writer Eran Zur was born in Haifa in 1965 and has been active in the Israeli rock music scene since the 1980s. He was a member of the bands Tattoo and Carmela, Gross, Wagner before embarking on a successful solo career. Zur has released about a dozen studio albums, six of them as a solo artist. He has also published two novels and composed music for film and theater. Eran Zur has received numerous awards for his achievements, including the 2011 Hebrew Poetry Prize and the Meir Ariel Prize for Creativity in the Hebrew Language, awarded to Eran Zur by the Israeli Prime Minister in 2013. Zur lives in Tel Aviv and is a faculty member at the Rimon School of Music. More info here.

Israeli folk/rock singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso Geva Alon is one of the most influential musicians in Israel today. Alon is considered as one of the best guitarists of all times in Israel, a mesmerizing vocalist and a unique songwriter that arouses great anticipation and excitement with every new project or release that he takes part in. Since 2006 Alon recorded and released seven albums and one EP, toured Israel, Europe, and the USA constantly, collaborated with prime artists and received outstanding reviews both for his breathtaking live performances as well as his entire discography.

Hamuchtar aka Gilad Philip Ben-David is a singer and cabaret artist who began his career in Tel Aviv in the late 1980s. He has also appeared in various films, most notably “Amazing Grace” by the late director Amos Guttman. He has released more than a dozen music albums and has numerous film and theater works to his credit as a writer, director and performer. His musical style incorporates cabaret, mizrahi music, Yemenite music and electronica.

Hila Karni, born in Tel Aviv, has toured Europe, Canada and the United States as a cellist from the age of 13. She studied with Zvi Harel, Uzi Wiesel, David Geringas and the legendary Bernard Greenhouse. Together with violinist Daniel Bard and pianist Ohad Ben-Ari, she founded the successful Trio Mondrian in 2006, which won numerous prizes, including 1st prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Trieste. Hila has been a member of Trio Lirico since 2021. Hila Karni’s recordings with the Hamburg Camerata and the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg have received enthusiastic critical reviews. In 2015, at the suggestion of her daughter Lir Vaginsky, she established the successful chamber music series “Prelude Concerts” in Berlin, which offers young talents the opportunity to perform with professional musicians

Julia Czerniawska grew up in a family of musicians and began playing the violin at the age of six. After completing her violin studies in Poland and Austria (Mozarteum University Salzburg), she performed with various European orchestras and smaller ensembles. Already during her classical education, she discovered her fascination for jazz and improvised music. By playing in various bands and studying jazz with Didier Lockwood in Paris, she developed her musical freedom and joy in exploring different musical styles.

Israeli violinist Lir Vaginsky has performed worldwide and is a regular guest soloist of renowned festivals and orchestras. Highlights of past seasons feature solo performances in the Laeiszhalle, Elbphilharmonie, Berliner Philharmonie and more. Recently, she performed alongside Max Richter at the Konzerthaus Berlin. As a member of the LGT Young Soloists, Lir recorded as soloist two CD’s under the label RCA Red Seal Sony. She is a laureate of the Ysaye, Young Paganini” and Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition. Lir currently plays on a violin by G.B. Guadagnini from 1745, kindly loaned through the Beare’s International Violin Society. More info here.

Lillia Keyes was born in Poughkeepsie, NY, USA. After completing her junior studies in cello performance under Ardyth Alton and Fred Sherry at the Juilliard School in New York, she studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Prof. Stephen Geber. Following her bachelor’s degree, she was accepted into the Orchestra Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. She successfully completed her master studies at the Berlin University of the Arts with Prof. Markus Nyikos. She performs as a guest with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Staatskapelle Berlin and Ensemble United Berlin. Lillia is a founding member of ‘she plays cello’ and ‘Duo Nuage’.

Israeli-born pianist and composer Ohad Ben-Ari is the artistic director of ID Festival, which he founded in 2015. Trained as a classical musician, Ohad’s career has taken surprising twists and turns leading to diverse collaborations, from Kanye West to Sir Simon Rattle. Today, Ohad lives with his family in Berlin, where he regularly teams up as a pianist with Guy Braunstein, Avi Avital, Noah Bendix-Balgley and Emmanuel Pahud, among many others. Ben-Ari’s compositions and arrangements are performed around the globe. His most recent work, the song cycle “Paterson” written for mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, will have its premiere with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra in Ingolstadt next season. More info here.

Israeli composer, double bass and oud player Shaul Bustan was born in 1983 in the south of Israel. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Composition from the Jerusalem Academy of Music in 2009. He wrote over 400 compositions throughout his career: from opera to chamber and orchestral music to melodies for film and theater. Shaul Bustan has been living in Germany since 2011. In addition to his work as a composer, he directs several choirs and performs with his trio throughout Germany.

Sivan Shavit is an Israeli singer-songwriter, based in Berlin. Shavit began her career in Tel Aviv in the 1990s and quickly gained recognition for her unique “Melancholic Indie Pop” melodies and cinematic lyrics. Her songs were also enthusiastically received by the radio and are still broadcast daily. They seem to capture something classic that stands the test of time. Shavit composed all her songs together with her life and music partner Amir Zoref, and collaborated with some of Israel’s greatest musicians, such as Yehudit Ravitz, Nurit Galron, Eviatar Banai and Assaf Amdursky.