Bar Avni

Israeli conductor Bar Avni is the youngest prize winner and scholarship recipient of the 2021 International Kurt Masur Institute, which enables prize winners to perform with the Halle Opera and give concerts at the IMPULS Festival in Saxony-Anhalt.

At the beginning of 2021, Bar Avni has been appointed chief conductor of the Bayer Philharmonic Orchestra in Leverkusen, which was founded in 1904, the first female conductor in the history of the orchestra. She was also made a fellow of Bayer Kultur’s prestigious Start Academy at the same time.

Kürzlich erfolgte Debüts beinhalten Konzerte mit der Camerata Hamburg in der Elbphilharmonie, dem Orchester der Staatskapelle Halle und der Philharmonie Halberstadt im Rahmen des IMPULS Festivals sowie mit dem Israel Philharmonic in der Charles Bronfman Hall, Tel Aviv.

Recent debuts include concerts with the Camerata Hamburg at the Elbphilharmonie, the Orchestra of the Staatskapelle Halle and the Philharmonie Halberstadt as part of the IMPULS Festival, and with the Israel Philharmonic at Charles Bronfman Hall, Tel Aviv.

Following a performance at the Yehudi Menuhin Festival’s Gstaad Conducting Academy with Jaap van Zweden and Johannes Schläflie in 2018, Avni was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize and invited to return to the Academy with Manfred Honeck in 2019.

Her 2016 debut at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl and subsequent prize at the Fitelberg Conducting Competition Katowice led to concerts with the Sinfonia Varsovia and other Polish orchestras. Since then, she has worked with a range of orchestras, including Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, Hamburger Camerata, Symphoniker Hamburg, Bergische Symphoniker, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Bridges Chamber Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia and Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra. Among the soloists with whom Avni has performed are Fatma Said, Laszlo Fenyö, Beatrice Rana, Claire Huangci, Vag Papian and Tamás Pálfalvi.

Bar Avni conducted the successful production of the chamber opera “Simplicius Simplicissimus” by Karl A. Hartmann, a shortened version of the opera Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell and the German premiere of a short opera based on the French film “L ‘Accordeur” (Best Short Film, “César”).

Bar Avni performed in all of Israel’s leading orchestras in her early career as a classical percussionist. She completed her studies with Yoav Talmi, Martin Sieghart and Ulrich Windfuhr. She then served as assistant conductor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra under music director Yoav Talmi and in the 2017-18 season of the Bergische Symphoniker under music director Peter Kuhn. There she conducted and hosted many open-air and family concerts very successfully and was immediately re-invited for the season after next.

Bar Avni is active in the music world beyond conducting. She was selected for The Future of the Orchestral Culture Fellowship, a German-American-Chinese collaboration that meets regularly with prominent figures in the music world to discuss issues, visions and attitudes shaping the world of orchestras in Europe and overseas. Bar Avni lives with her family in Germany.