Bio

Israeli cellist Inbal Megiddo brings to her performances years of experience, the influences of master teachers, and praise from influential musicians. Maestro Zubin Mehta describes her as “an extremely talented, very musical musician.” At her recent New York debut at the Lincoln Center her playing was hailed by the press as having “magical expression and technical expertise”. She has “a warm, lustrous communicative way…the performance was sincerity personified!”

Ms. Megiddo has performed as soloist with several ensembles including the National Symphony of Ireland, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Classical Orchestra with Harry Ellis Dickson conducting. She has given many recitals in Europe, Asia, and America. Recent performances include a recital in Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and chamber music in Carnegie Hall, her Berlin debut with the Berlin Symphony at the Philharmonie, performances and radio broadcasts with the Jerusalem Symphony under the direction of Sergio Comissiona, live recital broadcasts in several countries including Israel, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Chicago, and New York classical music radio and television stations. This includes solo recitals on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago (broadcast on WFMT radio and on the internet) and the Mishkenot Shaananim Music Center in Jerusalem (Kol Hamuzika station), and in Madrid, (broadcast on TV1). In June Ms. Megiddo performed a recital at the 2003 Israel Festival at the Targ Music Center.

At the invitation of the Singapore government in 1995, Ms. Megiddo was the featured soloist at the official celebration of the 50th anniversary of the UN in Singapore, performing Paganini’s Variations on One String; Joachim Stutchewsky’s Kaddish; and Popper’s Polonaise. Also in 1995, she performed the Kaddish at the memorial service for Yitzhak Rabin in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

Ms. Megiddo’s CD of Israeli composer Hanna Levy’s works was released in 1999 and was broadcast on Kol Hamuzika, Israel’s classical music network. She has recorded a CD of Bloch’s Schelomo with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale conducted by Lawrence Leighton Smith. Her performance of the Bach Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 was broadcast on both the classical radio station and public television station in Bonn, and her recording of works by Beethoven, with pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar will be released in 2005. She has also regularly recorded and performed with the Grammy Award nominated group, The Yale Cellos since 1994. Her major performances in Berlin took place in June 2001 at the Dom-Cathedral, and with the Berliner Symphoniker performing Haydn’s Concerto in C Major, under Lior Shambadal, at the Philharmonie Concert Hall.

Among Ms. Megiddo’s upcoming performances are engagements in Belgium, England, Ireland, Israel, Singapore and the US. Ms. Megiddo will also perform a tour (a repeat, following the success of the US tour last year) of the US and South America with pianist Saleem Abboud-Ashkar, with whom she has performed at the Staatsoper in Berlin, the UN General Assembly in Geneva, and the opening ceremony of the Madrid International Book Fair . Her recitals in Israel include repeat performances at the Targ Music Center, live broadcast on Israel radio, and at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Ms. Megiddo has participated in festivals in Banff playing chamber music and participating in master classes with Aldo Parisot, and in Rolandseck, Bonn, as soloist, as a member of chamber music ensembles, and as a performer in the master classes of Pinchas Zukerman and Yuri Bashmet, and at the West-Eastern Divan workshop with Daniel Barenboim (July 2001 in Chicago, August, 2002 Seville, Spain). She is active as a chamber musician, and has collaborated with performers such as Jesse Levine, viola, and Syoko Aki, violin. Ms. Megiddo toured with Yale Cellos, performing at the Manchester (England) Cello Festival in 2001, and Bouvais (France) music festival in 1999 and 2001. (The ensemble consists of sixteen cellists, all current and former students of Aldo Parisot, who perform works either written or transcribed for cello ensemble. It has toured in the U. S. and Europe, and has released three CDs; one received a Grammy nomination. Yale Cellos has also recorded a number of pieces on a new CD of the music of Ezra Laderman.) She is currently working on a CD for the Newport Classic record label. Ms. Megiddo is also in demand as a teacher, giving master classes in the US, Asia, Europe (in 2004 she presented a week of classes at the International Master Classes Festival in Dublin, and serves as a judge at the Royal Academy degree conferrals), and Israel, where she will be giving classes at the prestigious International Cello Seminar.

Inbal Megiddo began her cello studies at the age of two, and gave her first public performances a year later in inner-city school concerts coordinated by the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. At age five she began studying at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem with Prof. Shmuel Magen. She continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Holland, with Fred Pot and toured with the Royal Conservatory in Europe (Holland, Germany, Belgium, France and Luxemburg) in 1986 and 1987 (the Royal Conservatory Orchestra is composed of the outstanding talents of the Royal Music Conservatory in Holland). Inbal returned to Israel to study at Tel-Aviv University with Prof. Uzi Wiesel. She also participated in master classes with Janos Starker in 1984 and Michel Strauss in 1989 (in Jerusalem); performed privately for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1992 and as part of his cello ensemble to mark the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Ms. Megiddo completed her undergraduate degree at Yale University in 1998, and her Masters Degree in May, 2001 and Artist Diploma in May 2002 at the Yale School of Music after studying with Aldo Parisot for eight years, beginning with master classes in 1989 at the Mishkenot Shaananim Music Center in Jerusalem.

Ms. Megiddo has received many awards and prizes. In 1983, at the age of six, she won a scholarship from the Aviezer Foundation, and from the Max Varon Jerusalem Fund. That year she was also awarded her first scholarship from the America Israel Cultural Foundation, under the patronage of Isaac Stern, and has since received a scholarship from the Foundation every year. She won first prize at the William Waite Competition, and the Friends of Music Competition at Yale University. In 1997, Ms. Megiddo was the recipient of the Seldon Memorial Prize from Yale University, given to the undergraduate showing the greatest musical ability. She was featured on the cover of the December 2003 issue of Lifestyles Magazine, and in the book of musical memoirs by Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Musically Speaking. Ms. Megiddo currently plays a Fiorini cello. In 2004 Ms. Megiddo was recognized by the US government as an “artist of exceptional ability”. She was selected to the roster of “Rising Stars” of the Stradivari Society of Chicago as a musician “with the rare combination of extraordinary interpretive depth, virtuosity, and charisma to reach international stardom”, and is being assisted by them in a search for an instrument of the highest quality.

Ms. Megiddo has lived in Israel, Holland, Germany, Singapore, and the U.S.