Gilad Karni (Israel-Switzerland)
Violist Gilad Karni has been praised throughout the world for his tone and interpretation. He’s received countless honors, from prizes at competitions to leadership roles in some of the world’s finest orchestras. Equally at home in orchestral and solo or chamber music settings, Karni can be heard on concert stages around the globe in a range of repertoire, as well as on recordings.
First Prize winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition 1994, Third Prize at the ARD Munich among others, he has appeared in such festivals as, Aspen, Newport, and Bellingham in the USA at the invitations of conductors such as David Zinman, Claudio Abaddo and Charles Dutoit, Kaposvar, Dubrovnik Festival, Bastad and Lapland Festivals, Davos Music Festival, Kuhmo (Finland) Kfar Bloom (Israel), among many others.
In May 2009 he made both the world premiere of Prokofiev’s “Romeo & Juliet” arranged for viola and orchestra with the Berlin Symphony at the famed Berlin Philharmonie. In South America it was premiered with the Bogota Philharmonic, as well as in February 2012, in North American with the Hartford Symphony.
In 2007, he gave the Hungarian premiere of Miklos Rozsa’s viola concerto with the Budapest Concert Orchestra at the renowned Spring Festival to mark the composer’s 100 year centennial. This performance led to a 2008 Naxos recording that received great critical acclaim and was nominated for a Grammy. His recording of Shostakovich’s sonata and Lewensohn’s “ViolAlive” with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra released on the Sony Classical label received great reviews.
Gilad Karni is a Professor for Viola viola and chamber music at the Kalaidos University for Applied Sciences in Switzerland. He has given masterclasses at the Curtis Institute, New World Symphony in Miami, at Lynn University in Florida, Israel and the Far East to name a few. He has collaborated Isaac Stern, the Guarneri String Quartet, Yefim Bronfman, Leonidas Kavakos, Andreas Schiff, numerous conductors, performed in Carnegie Hall, soloed with both cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Heinrich Schiff, alongside Maxim Vengerov conducting, Menachem Pressler among many of today’s leading artists.
In 2020 he founded the Edge ensemble alongside his wife, violinist Eugenia Karni. Since 1990 Karni has held many principal positions and from 2004 serves as principal violist of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. He plays a Hiroshi Iizuka viola made for the late violist and pedagogue Emmanuel Vardi.
