Lahav Shani

In his early 30s, Israeli conductor and pianist Lahav Shani leads two renowned orchestras, the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest and the Tel Aviv-based Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Shani was also born in Tel Aviv in 1989 to a family of musicians. He began piano lessons at the age of six, which led to studies with Arie Vardi at the conservatory in his native city, where Shani also studied double bass. He continued his pianistic training in Berlin at the Hochschule Hanns Eisler with Fabio Bidini and also completed regular conducting studies here with Christian Ehwald. The meeting with conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim in Berlin, who supported the young musician as an artistic mentor, was groundbreaking.

A decisive step in Shani's career was winning the Bamberg Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2013. Among other things, he was subsequently invited by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to conduct the opening concert of the new season and was given the opportunity to conduct the Staatskapelle Berlin in June 2014 as a stand-in for Michael Gielen. This developed into a fruitful collaboration with the Staatskapelle in opera performances and symphony concerts.

In 2017, Shani was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra after a series of previous joint concerts. Shani's musical personality also made a great impression on the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest. His debut concert in June 2016 as conductor and pianist, including a piano concerto by Mozart conducted from the piano, led two months later to the orchestra unanimously appointing him as its chief conductor designate, succeeding Yannick Nézet-Séguin. When Shani took up the post in September 2018 at the age of 29, he was the youngest principal conductor in the orchestra's history. The collaboration with the Rotterdam orchestra will continue at least until August 2026.

Shani has a special relationship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. As early as 2007, he played the solo part in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in concerts of the orchestra as a sixteen-year-old pianist; later, he took part in concerts of the orchestra as a double bass player. After regular invitations as pianist and conductor, Shani took over the baton from Zubin Mehta for the 2020/21 concert season.

Shani is in demand internationally not only as a conductor, but also as a concert pianist with a repertoire ranging from Bach to the present. He has given solo recitals in Berlin's Pierre Boulez Hall, performed as a soloist with the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and played in various chamber music ensembles with artistic partners such as Janine Jansen, Joshua Bell and Renaud and Gautier Capuçon.

As of August 2022