Save the Date – 2021 Galas

We have missed being with you and are excited at the opportunity to gather once more!

Join us for a return of live music as we celebrate the Israel Philharmonic’s 85th Anniversary with a multi-city tour featuring a string quartet of the IPO musicians.

Click the link below for each city to learn more about the event –

     December 1 — New York, NY

     December 2 — Miami, FL

     December 6 — Dallas / Fort Worth, TX

     December 8 — San Diego, CA

     December 9 — Los Angeles, CA

     December 12 — San Francisco, CA

For more information or to ensure that you receive an invitation to a benefit event in a particular city, email [email protected]

Meet the musicians of this string quartet, who will be performing works by Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and Haydn –

David Radzynski (violin)
David Radzynski is one of the youngest violinists to lead a major world orchestra today. He has led the orchestra on tours throughout Europe, China, Singapore, India, South America and the USA. He has also performed as guest concertmaster with the Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras. As concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic, he enjoys collaborating regularly with many conductors and soloists, in orchestral, solo, and chamber music settings. An avid chamber musician, he has performed with Emanuel Ax, Pinchas Zukerman, Lahav Shani and Martha Argerich, among others. As a soloist, he has performed the Weinberg Violin Concert with the Israel Philharmonic and Manfred Honeck, the Haydn Sinfonia Concertante with his colleagues of the Israel Philharmonic at Vienna’s Musikverein under Zubin Mehta, and the Brahms Double Concerto with principal cellist of the Polish National Philharmonic and the Łódź Philharmonic in Poland. He has also played as soloist with the Columbus Symphony and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Poznan, where he premiered the Double Concerto composed by his father, Jan Radzynski. David Radzynski also gives recitals regularly throughout the world. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, a Master’s degree from Yale, and Artist Certificate from the International Center for Music at Park University.

Polina Yehudin (violin)
Polina Yehudin joined the Israel Philharmonic in 2007, and within one year won a position in the First Violin section. Born in Moscow, she began playing the violin at the age of 6 and studied at the Gnessin School for Talented Children with Valentina Korolkova. When she was 15, her family immigrated to Salt Lake City, USA, and later settled in Oklahoma. Although she is from a long line of physicists on both her father’s and her mother’s side, she is the first musician in the family. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Indiana University with professors Nelli Shkolnikova and Miriam Fried. Her string quartet won the Kuttner Quartet Competition in 2001. She continued her Master’s studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with William Preucil, Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. Polina Yehudin participated in the Verbier Festival, Aspen Festival, the Boulder Music Festival, Sarasota Chamber Music Festival, and was concertmaster of the orchestras of the Spoleto Music Festival and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestral Institute in Attergau. While touring Israel, she was fascinated by the country and decided to audition for the Israel Philharmonic. The audition firmly established her place among the orchestra’s young and ambitious new generation of musicians.

Yoni Gertner (viola)
Yoni Gertner studied at the Kfar Saba Conservatory, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Much credit for the indispensable gifts of inspiration, technique and love of music goes to his teachers and mentors through the years: Atar Arad, Hagai Shaham, Michael Gaisler, Paul Welt and Zachary Chanin. Growing up, he was a member of the Jerusalem Music Center’s Young Musicians Program and served in the IDF as an outstanding musician. He won prizes in several competitions and was a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship and the Barbara and David Jacobs fellowship at the Jacobs School of Music, where he also held a position of Associate Instructor. As a chamber musician, he collaborated with Joshua Bell, Atar Arad, Hagai Shaham, Rudolph Koelman, Mihaela Martin, Giora Feidman, Kirill Gerstein, the Rubens Quartet, the Apple Hill Quartet and many more. He took part in major music festivals in Europe and in Israel, collaborated with several ensembles specializing in new music and performed as soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. A passionate educator, he has led masterclasses in Israel and across the USA and is on the teaching faculty of Hassadna Conservatory in Jerusalem, the annual chamber music workshop at Brandeis University and the Apple Hill center for chamber music. When not on stage, Yoni Gertner is a podcast enthusiast, enjoys watching thought provoking videos and would rarely turn down an invitation to join a lively debate.

Haran Meltzer (cello)
Haran Meltzer joined the Israel Philharmonic during the 2020-2021 season as Principal Cellist. He studied with Luba Rabin at the Kfar Saba Conservatory, with Zvi Plesser at the Israel Conservatory of Music, as well as with Emanuele Silvestri and Felix Nemirovsky. Today continues his studies with Claudio Bohorquez in Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. He has appeared as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta, as well as performed with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Israel Camerata Orchestra, Israel Simfonietta Beer Sheva, the Tel-Aviv Soloists Ensemble and Ashdod Symphony Orchestral. He has collaborated in chamber music performances with Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried, Guy Braunstein, Hagai Shaham, Amihai Grosz, Zvi Plesser, Ohad Ben-Ari and Alon Goldstein. Haran Meltzer won the first prizes in the Aviv Competition (Israel 2018), the Davidov Competition (Latvia 2018) and the Gabrielli Competition (Germany 2019). He receives scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation since 2007 and from Zefunot Culture since 2009.