In the summer of 2024 , July to September, I was traveling to three festivals, and had the chance to work with some incredible young talents and with advanced students. I worked with 35 different students in Italy and Israel.
The summer started with the Musikfest Perugia a festival established by Pianist Ilana Vered. This summer course and festival, gives students the chance to play a concerto movement with a live orchestra. Some of the participants were prodigies (as young as 8 years old)! It is always fascinating to see the potential in such young talents, who can already play concertos with an orchestra. My own students who joined me to this festival also played extremely well.
I continued my travel to my home country Israel, where the Tel Hai international master classes were scheduled to take place, this year in Tel Aviv. The security situation was alarming, people were expecting a missile attack (which luckily didn’t occur) and I was forced to stay at home, together with two of my students for the first two days of the festival. Later on, the master classes started, with a great success. I have given a public master class and numerous lessons to the participants.
The next festival was Italy, this time in Florence. This was a festival of the legendary Pianist Oxana Yablonskaya who generously invited me to come to teach and do a joint master class. Although more relaxed in nature, I felt this festival gave a great benefit to the participants who could focus on their work and get a chance to have a master class and to perform in the beautiful area of Florence.
It seems to me that music festivals are one of the best ways for students to grow and to build their musical ideas and connections. It is always a celebration for all participants, including the teachers!
Next stop: Pisa