Celebrating 25 years, the annual Tel Aviv Piano Festival is going to be even bigger than usual this year. In a press conference held on Monday at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Mayor Ron Huldai said that the festival “is one of the signs of the fall season in the city.”
The star-studded line-up includes many of Israel’s top musicians who will participate in 60 concerts, special productions, premiers, and other interesting collaborations.
The festival is from October 24 to 30, and performances will take place at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s various venues, as well as the Cameri Theater, the Beit Ariela Library, The Opera House, Enav Cultural Center, and Charles Bronfman Auditorium, Heichal Hatarbut.
Who's performing at the Tel Aviv Piano Festival?
This year’s lineup is varied and includes A-listers as well as newcomers, hip-hop artists, rock musicians, electronic and pop artists, ethnic and Mediterranean music, and even some classical music.
Based on previous years, the most interesting concerts are the ones that bring together strange collaborations, some of which have been so successful, they became a permanent fixture on the festival scene. A few even became successful albums.
In But Love, the opening concert at the Opera House, Miri Mesika will team up with Alon Eder, a collaboration that may prove interesting. In the concert, Mesika will perform her newly arranged hits with her band as well as a string quartet.
Shlomi Shaban will host Chava Alberstein in the closing concert - Open House? Closing Concert. Shaban is one of the founders of the Piano Festival, and this year he returns for the closing concert. He will perform with an ensemble of eight musicians, The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble (a string orchestra), and Chava Alberstein, with whom he has enjoyed a long artistic relationship since the two recorded a duet.
“This evening is the product of a few of the artistic meetings I hold most dear. My story is entwined with that of the festival, the new and exciting ensemble, the venue Heichal Hatarbut [where Shaban hosted a music TV program while it was shut down during COVID], the orchestra, and above all, the reunion with Chava, who makes me feel a spark every time we meet on stage,” said Shaban.
THE FESTIVAL will host many special concerts, including one by Ivri Lieder, produced especially for the festival, called B-Side; and an acoustic concert performed by Yasmeen Mualem called Ein Olam. Veteran musician Danny Sanderson, who was the lead singer-songwriter in bands such as Kaveret and Doda, among others, and also wrote the music and lyrics for more than 300 songs, will perform “the best of his lesser-known songs” together with his band. Alon Eder will also launch his latest album with piano accompaniments, and Rona Kenan will host Alon Olearchik another notable member of Kaveret.
After collaborating on the album In Good Company, Shem Tov Levy and The Orchestra (Israel’s jazz orchestra), will perform songs from that album, as well as instrumental pieces.
Other tribute evenings include a tribute to Benny Amdursky performed by his son, the singer-songwriter Assaf Amdursky, who will host Yael Kraus; a tribute to TV host, playwright, and lyricist Yaron London, will also take place, with Dori Ben Zeev, Uri Banai, Ilan Leibovitch, and Michal Brand.
Yali Sobol and Guy Mintus will perform songs from Lou Reed’s In Berlin album, while Guy Mintus will collaborate with Daniel Dor and Ariel Bert in a tribute evening to Bob Dylan. The three will try to sketch a portrait of Dylan through his works from different periods in his rich career, against the backdrop of video art created especially for this evening.
Nurit Galron will premiere a new show – Calling Me (Kore Li Lavo) and Vered Dekel perform New Paths for the first time.
A number of projects were produced especially for the festival which include smaller concerts which will take place in the Museum’s galleries.
For the first time, there will also be a special Piano Festival for Kids with performances dedicated to the songs of Alon Olearchik; a special zoological-musical project called Live Legend by musicians Shachar Even Zur and Yoni Bloch who collaborated with the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. There will even be a concert of Ella Fitzgerald songs for kids.
“The piano in the festival has not only physical meaning but also a metaphorical one,” said Etti Aneta, the festival’s artistic director. “The piano is both a string instrument and a percussion instrument, and the most aristocratic of all the instruments in the orchestra. It has the widest range and it represents the deepest sense of the festival – a wide range of musical styles and artists.
“The festival opens the stage to the artistic abundance we have in Israel, to moving and exciting collaborations that can only exist in a place so rich and varied in culture as well as contradictions. But beyond the power of the festival is the artistic freedom it gives all the artists – freedom which allows them to try original ideas that are as new to them as they are to the wonderful audience who come here.”
Tel Aviv Piano Festival, October 24-30, for the full program, go to www.pianofestival.co.il/he/home.
For tickets call Zapa Eventim *9080 or online at www.zappa-club.co.il/artist/pianofestival/
