Itamar Zorman

Itamar Zorman is one of Israel's most prominent violinists of his generation, a first-prize winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011. He has wide experience as both a soloist and a chamber music player. Zorman was born in 1985 in Tel Aviv, Israel. His father, Moshe Zorman, was a composer, and his mother, Astrith Baltsan, was a pianist. Zorman began violin lessons at age six at the Israeli Conservatory of Music, where his teachers included Saly Bockel, David Chen, and Nava Milo. Zorman went on to the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, studying with Hagai Shaham, and then to the Juilliard School in New York, earning a master's degree in 2009. He also received artists' diplomas from Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music and rounded out his education at the Kronberg Academy in Germany with lessons from Christian Tetzlaff. Prizes and scholarships at the highest level boosted Zorman's growing career; these included first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011, a win at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2012, an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2013, and a Borletti-Buitoni Award in 2014. Zorman has been involved with chamber music since his student years, cofounding the Israeli Chamber Project. He made his recording debut in 2012 with that group, issuing the album Opus 1. Zorman's first solo album, Portrait, appeared in 2014 on the Profil label and featured pianist Kwan Yi. Zorman has appeared as a soloist with top orchestras, including the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, among others. His recital career has taken him to such halls as the Louvre Museum in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Germany. Zorman has been a regular attraction on the festival circuit, appearing at such events as the Verbier, Marlboro, Rheingau, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern festivals. He is a member of the Lysander Trio and has attracted top-flight chamber music collaborators, including pianists Richard Goode (with whom he has performed at the Library of Congress and Carnegie Hall), Richard Goode (performances at Carnegie Hall and Library of Congress), and Mitsuko Uchida, cellist Steven Isserlis, and clarinetist Jörg Widmann. In 2019, Zorman issued the album Evocation, featuring violin works by composer Paul Ben-Haim; it was part of an ongoing project from the BIS label devoted to Ben-Haim's music. Zorman returned in 2022 on the First Hand Records label with the album Violin Odyssey.
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