Guy Ben-Ziony – Viola
Guy Ben-Ziony was born in 1974 in Israel. At the age of 9 he started to play the violin and at 13 switched to the viola. He studied with, among others, Professor Chaim Taub in Israel, Professor Tabea Zimmermann (Frankfurt Conservatory for Music and Theatre), and Professor Tatjana Masurenko (Leipzig Conservatory for Music and Theatre).
Ben-Ziony is the principal violist of the Camerata Nordica, Sweden, and is regularly invited as guest viola principal by orchestras such as the Camerata Salzburg, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the Kremerata Baltica. Since 2006, Ben-Ziony has been Professor for viola and chamber music at the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Conservatory in Leipzig.
As a soloist he has played with many European orchestras and most Israeli orchestras, among them the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Tel-Aviv Soloists, and the Israel Defence Forces Chamber Orchestra at its 12th anniversary, a concert under the patronage of Isaac Stern. He made his debut performing the Bartók concerto in Leipzig under Daniel Harding.
In 1998/1999, Ben-Ziony was a member of the Zapolski Quartet in Copenhagen. They toured throughout Scandinavia and Russia and recorded for the “Chandos” and “Classico” record companies. Further chamber music groups took Ben-Ziony to concerts in Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London and the Berlin Konzerthaus.
Ben-Ziony has participated in some of the world’s leading chamber music festivals, among them Lockenhaus (Austria), Davos (Switzerland), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Heimbach (Germany), Jerusalem (Israel), Kronberg (Germany), Moritzburg (Germany), Prussia Cove (UK), and Ravinia (USA).
Guy Ben-Ziony has collaborated in concerts with artists such as Gidon Kremer, Antje Weithaas, Tabea Zimmermann, Tatjana Masurenko, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Boris Pergamenschikow, and Menahem Pressler.