Meitar Ensemble
Ensemble Meitar is a unique group, which was founded with the objective of performing contemporary chamber music.
It was established in 2004 by Amit Dolberg and has been directed by him ever since.
Winners of the “Landau Award” for classical music performers (2010), the “Binyamini Award” (2006) presented to them by the Israeli Cultural Minister for their activities in promoting Israeli and Jewish music, and the “Partosh Award” of the Israeli Cultural Minister (2008) for best performance of an Israeli piece; they are highly regarded as a cornerstone of Israeli culture and music.
The Ensemble maintains continuous contact with composers in Israel and abroad and is constantly initiating new collaborations. In the last seven years, more than 80 pieces were written for Meitar.
Another Facet of the ensemble’s mission is to bring to the public eye music composed at the beginning of the 20th century by the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Music.
A recent endeavor has been a memorable concert at Villa Wannsee, Berlin, house of the historical Wannsee conference. A documentary of that historical event by director Emre Sonmez premiered in the Film festival in Berlin (Berlinale), in the Jerusalem Jewish film festival and in the Filmmakers festival in New-York. In April 2011 the film won the first prize for a documentary at the Mexican Film Festival.
The ensemble established a master-course for composers and conductors with the composer and conductor, Fabian Panisello and the composers Mark Andre, Walter Zimmermann and Daniel Peter Biro.
The IMI label has released a CD featuring pieces which were written especially for Meitar, and later this year a second CD with the same label is expected. In October 2011 the VERSO recording label will release a CD featuring music by Fabian Panisello, performed by the ensemble\'s members.
In its years of existence the ensemble performed throughout England (Purcell Room, London), France (Centre Pompidou, Paris), Germany (Radial System, BKA, Berlin), Spain, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and Israel.
The ensemble performed in many festivals such as, Zukunst Festival Berlin; the Biennale for contemporary music, Tel Aviv; Kfar Blum Festival; Sofia Music Week; Sofia Pianissimo Festival; In the EU Cultural Capitol for the year 2007 ,Jewish Music Week, Romania; Summer Nights Festival, Jerusalem; Spanish Night Festival, Germany; the Heidelberg Biennale for Contemporary Music and many more.
In April 2012 the ensemble\'s string quartet “16” will give it\'s debut concert in Tel-Aviv. The quartet members are: Moshe Aharonov and Yonah Zur – violins, Yuval Gotlibovich – viola, Jonathan Gotlibovitch – cello.
Meitar is the ensemble in residence of the Jerusalem Music Academy and the ensemble in residence for contemporary music of the Israeli Conservatory.
The ensemble\'s members are all recipients of the AICF, the Bucman-Heiman and Arkin Family scholarships.
Ensemble Meitar enjoys the generous support of the Adele and John Gray Endowment.
Ensemble Meitar\'s composer in residence: Ayal Adler
