The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) is preparing for a tour of the United States under the leadership of its history-making conductor, Israeli-born Lahav Shani.
The first post-COVID tour for the IPO will hit the States from Nov. 2 to Nov. 14 with concerts in Costa Mesa, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stanford and Miami, closing out at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall.
“Any artist will tell you the experience of performing in front of a live audience makes a hell of a difference. There is nothing like the excitement, the need to be at your best at a certain minute,” Avi Shoshani, the IPO’s longtime secretary general, told JNS. “And Carnegie Hall is like Mecca. Everyone who thinks they are a good artist and everyone who is a good artist makes a point to come and perform there.”
Following a three-year halt in U.S. appearances due to the pandemic, the Israel Philharmonic now features Shani at the helm. He is the first IPO musical director to be born in Israel.
The orchestra’s founding members were leading musicians from Eastern Europe who were fired from some of the greatest orchestras of the world because they were Jews. They were saved when Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman, founder of the then-Palestine Symphony Orchestra, brought them to Tel Aviv in 1936. More recently, the IPO benefited from a huge wave of musicians who immigrated from the former Soviet Union.