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Meet the Members of the Israeli Chamber Project Mr. Cziger is a frequent recitalist and soloist and enjoys exploring new repertoire for the clarinet, including his own arrangements to works originally not for the clarinet. Solo appearances include concerti with the iPalpiti String Orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Tivoli Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen, Metropolis Ensemble, and Israel Chamber Orchestra among others. Mr. Cziger has performed as guest clarinetist with the Oslo Radio Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway), Israel Philharmonic, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra among others, and was recently appointed as principal clarinetist of the Israeli Camerata Orchestra. As a passionate chamber musician, Mr. Cziger has performed a vast amount of chamber literature for the clarinet, with various concerts in live and recorded television and radio broadcasts on channels in Israel, Europe, and the US. Recent venues include Barge Music, Zankel and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Terrace Theatre at Kennedy Center, LACMA's Bing Theatre, Jerusalem Theatre and YMCA, and the Musikverein (Vienna). He is a regular participant at Musique en Brionnais (France), and has also performed at the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Tivoli Festival (Denmark), Craftsbury Chamber Players, iPalpiti International Festival, and the West Eastern Divan Workshop among others. For the summer of 2011 he was invited to participate at the Marlboro Chamber music festival in Vermont. Mr. Cziger holds an Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School, M.Mus degree from the University of Southern California, and a B.Mus. degree magna cum laude from the Tel Aviv music Academy. He studied clarinet with Charles Neidich, Yehuda Gilad, Richard Lesser, and Itzhak Kazzap.
Mr. Katz has a great passion for expanding the cello repertoire with lesser known works and contemporary works. He regularly performs works by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Prokofiev and Shostakovich as well as Magnard, Ginastera, Penderecki, Khachaturian and Schuller. Mr. Katz has premiered works by Yehudi Wyner, Malcolm Payton, Sergio Natra, Ofer Ben-Amots, Mohammed Fairouz and others. As a chamber musician Mr. Katz has performed at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, Merkin Hall, Philips Hall in Eindhoven Netherlands, Monaco Theatre Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. Formerly a founding member of the award winning Béla String Quartet, Mr. Katz is now a member of the award winning Lysander Piano Trio. With the Lysander Trio, Mr. Katz has won first prizes at the Coleman and J.C. Arriaga competitions. He is also a member of the Mimesis Ensemble, a New York based contemporary music ensemble. Mr. Katz has collaborated and performed with musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Laurence Lesser, Donald Weilerstein, Roger Tapping, Violaine Melancon, Paul Biss, Yehudi Wyner, Mariam Adam and Zvi Plesser. Mr. Katz participated in chamber music programs such as the Steans Institue for Young Artists and the Perlman Music Program. In summer 2009, as a participant of the Sarasota Music Festival, Mr. Katz performed the American premiere of Mozart’s newly discovered Rondo for Clarinet and String Quartet K.581a in a group that included renowned clarinetist Charles Neidich. Born in Tel-Aviv Israel, Mr. Katz began his cello studies at age 7. Among his teachers in Israel were Zvi Plesser, Hillel Zori and the late Mikhail Khomitzer. Mr. Katz received his Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory where he studied with Laurence Lesser and graduated with academic honors. He has received his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Joel Krosnick.
Recent engagements include recital and concerto performances in the USA, Taiwan, Colombia, Israel, and Europe, including the world premiere of Haim Permont's "Aviv" concerto accompanied by the Israel Philharmonic, and debut recitals at New York's Merkin Hall and London's Wigmore Hall. He performed the opening concerts of the 10th World Harp Congress in Amsterdam (2008) and the First International Harp Festival of the Netherlands (2010) as well as the closing concert of the 2010 American Harp Society Convention, as a soloist with the Northwest Sinfonietta. The Victor Salvi Foundation, sponsor of the Wigmore Hall debut, will also sponsor his debut solo CD recording for the Egan label. This past season has also seen the release of the world premiere recording of Compline by Christopher Rouse on Koch International, in which he collaborated with the Calder Quartet. Aside from his growing activity as a soloist, Mr. Magen is an avid chamber musician and as such has performed at Le Trianon and Salle Gaveau in Paris, recorded for Israeli Radio and Television, as well as New York's WQXR and the French television channel Mezzo, and was recently featured in APM's Performance Today's special dedicated to Marlboro Music's 60th anniversary. He participated in chamber music festivals in Marlboro (USA), Kuhmo (Finland), Giverny (France), Kfar-Blum (Israel) and the International Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem, collaborating with artists such as Kim Kashkashian, Nobuko Imai, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Gary Hoffman, Franklin Cohen, Charles Neidich, Marina Piccinini, Carol Wincenc, Emmanuel Pahud, and members of the Guarneri Quartet. This coming season he will be featured on Musicians from Marlboro's tour of the East Coast. Mr. Magen is also a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project, an ensemble that performs both in outreach venues, as well as major concert halls in Israel and the US. Mr. Magen is also gaining a reputation as a sought-after teacher, presenting masterclasses in the US (The Juilliard School, Duquesne University), Colombia, Taiwan and Israel, the Utrecht Conservatory, London's Guildhall School and Trinity College, and at the Jerusalem Music Academy's International "Music in the Valley" seminar for strings. In addition, he has been invited to serve as member of the jury of the first Netherlands International Harp Competition, the Lyon & Healy Awards, and served as Head of the Jury of the 2007 National Harp Contest in Taiwan. Born in Jerusalem, Sivan Magen studied the piano with Benjamin Oren and Talma Cohen and the harp with Irena Kaganovsky-Kessler at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. After finishing his military service as an "Outstanding Musician", he continued his studies with Germaine Lorenzini in France and then joined Isabelle Moretti's harp class at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) from which he graduated with a "Premier Prix". He then completed a Master's degree at Nancy Allen's studio at the Juilliard School in New York City. Sivan Magen was a winner of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships from 1995 to 2008.
Mr. Weisman's performances have taken him to some of the major venues in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. These include appearances at the Rudolfinum in Prague, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Philips Hall in The Hague, the Millennium Piano Festival in Spain as well as in Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. As first prize winner in the 2006 Iowa International Piano Competition he has appeared as soloist with the Sioux City Symphony, American Chamber Orchestra, Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra as well as the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of Peru. Mr. Weisman's radio credits include WQXR's "Young Artist Showcase" featuring works of Haydn and Scriabin, "The Voice of Music" in Israel as well as multiple appearances on WGBH radio in Boston where he has recorded repertoire ranging from Bach to André Previn. He is still the youngest person to appear on that station making his debut at the age of twelve. His 2002 release of an all Schubert recording for Yamaha's "NYC Rising Star" series quickly became one of its best sellers. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Weisman has collaborated with Isidore Cohen and Michael Tree, among others, and has taken part in the Aspen Music Festival, Campos do Jordão (Brazil), Lima Chamber Music Festival (Peru), The Music Festival of the Hamptons, and Verbier (Switzerland). He is a founding member, and the U.S. director of the Israeli Chamber Project, with whom he has toured Israel and North America since 2008.
Making his home in New York City, Mr. Weisman can often be heard in such local venues as Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, St. Paul's Chapel, Trinity Church and Rockefeller University. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Herbert Stessin and where he now is a member of the Evening Division piano faculty. Prior to his studies in New York Mr. Weisman studied with Professor Victor Derevianko in Israel and was supported by scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
Mr. Zorman is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project and the Lysander piano trio, with whom he won the first prize in The Arriaga and The Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competitions. He plays on a Pietro Guarneri violin, on loan to him from Mr. Yehuda Zisapel. Back to top of page Return to Previous Page Home  |
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Described as an "exciting soloist" by the NY Times, Israeli clarinetist Tibi Cziger is a graduate of the prestigious Artist Diploma program at The Juilliard School, under the guidance of Mr. Charles Neidich. He is also the artistic director and founder of the Israeli Chamber Project an initiative bringing young and outstanding Israeli musicians together for chamber music projects in Israel and the US.
Described by the New York Times as "warm-toned," cellist Michael Katz has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in concerts and festivals around the world. He has performed at music festivals such as Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Orford, Kfar Bloom and others and has presented recitals in various venues at the U.S, Canada, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Israel. Mr. Katz has performed concertos by Dvorak, Schumann, Haydn and Shostakovich with conductors such as James DePriest, David Stern and Menachem Nebenhaus. Winner of all three categories at the 2011 Aviv Competition, he has also won first prizes at the Juilliard concerto competition, the Turjeman Competition, the Israeli Conservatory Scholarship Competition and was a recipient of scholarships from the America Israel Cultural Foundation and the Ronen Foundation
Acclaimed harpist Sivan Magen is the first Israeli to have ever won the prestigious International Harp Contest in Israel (2006), and is a recent winner of the Pro Musicis International Award in New York, as a result of which he will be presented in recitals in the USA and in Europe, including at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. 
Pianist Assaff Weisman has been captivating audiences with his intensity, lyricism and communicative style since his solo debut at the age of twelve. The Greenville News observed "this piano virtuoso has facile fingers that toss off daredevil passages with ease and a mind for music that is as nimble as his fingers", and the New York Sun observed "Remember his name."
Cited by the press as a "Virtuoso of emotions", violinist Itamar Zorman has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, the Südwestdeutsches kammerorchester Pforzheim, the Israeli Sinfonietta, the Greenwich Village Orchestra, and the Salina Symphony. He has been featured in television and radio programs in Israel, Austria, France, Russia, and the U.S., including WQXR's "Young Artist showcase". As a scholarship recipient from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and the Ilona Feher Foundation, and as a member of the Jerusalem Music Center's "Young Musicians Group", Mr. Zorman has participated in master classes with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Shlomo Mintz, Ida Handel, and Shmuel Ashkenazi. Among his many awards are the First Prize and a special prize for a performance of a Mozart Concerto at the 2010 Freiburg International Violin Competition, as well as top prizes at The Juilliard Concerto Competition, The King Award Competition, The Manhattan School of Music's Concerto Competition, The Claremont Competition in Israel, The Rubin Academy Jerusalem Competition, the Israeli Conservatory Competition, The ISA Budapest-Vienna-Prague Competition for Contemporary music, and the Ben-Haim Competition. Mr. Zorman has taken part in festivals at Marlboro, Radio France and Montpellier, Keshet Eilon, YAC of the National Center of the Arts in Canada, Aspen Music Festival and School, and The Heifetz International Music Institute. He is a graduate of the Israeli Conservatory in Tel-Aviv, and received his Bachelor's degree from the Jerusalem Academy of Music, where his teachers included Sally Bockel, David Chen, Nava Milo and Hagai Shaham. He holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Robert Mann and Sylvia Rosenberg, an Artist Diploma from the Manhattan School of Music, and is currently enrolled in the Artist Diploma Program at the Juilliard School as a student of Sylvia Rosenberg.
