Amir Katz

Born in Israel, he studied piano with Hanna Shalgi at the age of eleven and performed at the age of fifteen with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. After winning several national competitions and receiving a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Clairmont Prize, he moved to Europe, where he worked with Sulamita Aronovsky, Elisso Wirssaladze and Michael Schäfer, then at the International Piano Academy from Lake Como, with Leon Fleisher, Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Murray Perahia. He won the 1st prize in the international Maria Canals competition in Barcelona, Robert Casadesus in Cleveland, Viotti Valsesia in Italy and the Schubert competition in Dortmund. He is invited by orchestras and festivals from all over the world and performs in prestigious venues in Europe, Asia and North America, such as the Châtelet in Paris, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Berlin Philharmonic and Lincoln Center in New York and the Savannah Music Festival, the Radio France and Montpellier Festival or the Oleg Kagan Musikfest Kreuth. He has performed with the Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona, the Israel Camerata, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Symphony of Princeton, the Orchester national de Lille, the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, the Prague Philharmonia, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Münchner Philharmoniker. After a tour that has taken him to Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Munich and the Musikverein in Vienna, his recording of Chopin's Four Ballads and Four Impromptus (Oehms Classics) appears. In recent seasons he has made his debut at Wigmore Hall in London, giving the world premiere of a piano concerto by Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye. He recorded Schubert's 8 Impromptus (Orfeo 2016), a cycle comprising all of Liszt's piano studies, then Chopin's 24 studies (Orfeo 2017). In 2020, he burned a double CD "Hommage à Liszt" (Orfeo). In addition to his concert activity, he gives masterclasses at Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, Cornel University of Ithaca and Miami Academy. Since 2010, he has been accompanying tenor Pavol Breslik in recital. This collaboration takes them to Munich, Vienna, Paris and the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, among others. Further recitals are scheduled in Zurich and Brussels, as well as in Berlin and at the Munich Opera Festival.