Rivka Golani

Rivka Golani (born 22 March 1946) is an Israeli viola player. She has performed as soloist with many orchestras throughout the world including the Boston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hong Kong Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan, Montreal Symphony and the Toronto Symphony. More than 250 pieces have been written for her, including over 60 concertos.

Golani's CD recordings include the Elgar Cello Concerto arranged for viola with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bartok Concerto with the Budapest Symphony, Martinu's Rhapsody Concerto with the Bern Symphony, Chaconne by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Colgrass with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a three CD set of works by Johann Sebastian Bach arranged for solo viola.

As a teacher, Golani draws students from around the world to her master classes. She holds a professorship at Trinity College of Music in London and has also taught at Birmingham Conservatoire, the University of Toronto, and London's Royal Academy of Music.

Biography

Golani was born in Tel Aviv. Her father was from Warsaw, and had lost his family in the Holocaust. Her mother was from Polish Galicia. Golani's parents were artistic, and Golani took up the violin at age 7, while her sister learned the cello.

Golani studied with the violinist Alexander Moskowsky and with the violist Oedoen Partos, and became a member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She married the Hungarian luthier Otto Erdesz, and in 1974 the couple moved to Canada, where Golani became a citizen in 1983. Erdesz manufactured for her what has been her preferred instrument throughout her career. After their divorce, Ms Golani remarried and moved to London, UK where she continues to reside with her present husband, Jeremy Fox. Golani is also a painter and has exhibited in America, Canada, Israel and the UK.[1]

Critical acclaim

She stands at the head of today’s supreme viola virtuosi - white-hot in delivery, kaleidoscopic in tone colours, electrifying in rhythmic attack, an obvious inspiration to composers. Financial Times - London

...technical wizardry...nothing less than a musical dynamo... Musical America

...an artist wholly at one with her instrument, producing rich, singing tone, and displaying an immaculate technique. Music & Musicians

Rivka Golani is a magnificent violist, with impeccable technique and both taste and power...she may be carving out a place of her own that no other performer on the instrument can reach. James North/Fanfare Magazine

Discography

Compilations

References

  1. ↑ Jewish Renaissance, October 2009, pp40-41.

External links