Shmuel Ashkenasi • Born in Tel Aviv in 1941, violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi attended the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv, later studying in the U.S. on scholarship under Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute. He won prizes at Belgium's Queen Elisabeth Competition, Washington’s Meriwether Post Competition (1st prize), and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition in 1962. Ashkenasi toured the Soviet Union twice. He concertizes regularly throughout the world, performing with such orchestras as the Philadelphia Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, and the orchestras of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Zurich, Rotterdam, Geneva and Stockholm. Conductors with whom he has performed include Stokowski, Boehm, Kempe, Leinsdorf, Kubelik, Skrowaczewski and Ancerl. As first violinist of the famed Vermeer Quartet, Ashkenasi has also gained a reputation as one of the world’s outstanding chamber musicians. He has served on the Keshet Eilon faculty over time.