Rivka Golani
Encyclopedia
Rivka Golani is an Israeli viola
player.
She has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Boston Symphony
, 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 class
es. 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
.
. 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, whom she met while touring America under Zubin Mehta
, and in 1974 the couple moved to Canada
, where Golani became a citizen in 1983. Erdesz encouraged Golani's solo career and 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. Golani is also a painter and has exhibited in America, Canada, Israel and the UK.
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
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
player.
She has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Boston Symphony
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
, Royal Concertgebouw
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of the Netherlands, based at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1988, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra...
, BBC Symphony
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
, BBC Philharmonic, Hong Kong Symphony, Singapore Symphony
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a 96 members professional symphony orchestra. Its main performing venue is the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore although it has also toured widely in Asia, Europe and the United States...
, Royal Philharmonic
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
, Rotterdam Philharmonic
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is a Dutch symphony orchestra based in Rotterdam. Its primary venue is the concert hall De Doelen. The RPhO is considered one of the Netherlands' two principal orchestras of international standing, second to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam...
, Israel Philharmonic
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...
, Tokyo Metropolitan
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
The , also known as Tokyō , is one of the representative symphony orchestras of Japan. The Orchestra was founded in 1965 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, to commemorate the Tokyo Olympics ....
, Montreal Symphony
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is a symphony orchestra based in Montréal, Québec, Canada, with Montréal's Place des Arts as its home.-History:...
and the Toronto Symphony
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario.-History:The TSO was founded in 1922 as the New Symphony Orchestra, and gave its first concert at Massey Hall in April 1923. The orchestra changed its name to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927. The TSO...
. 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
Viola Concerto (Bartók)
Béla Bartók's Viola Concerto, Sz. 120, BB 128 was written in July – August 1945, in Saranac Lake, New York, while he was suffering from the terminal stages of leukemia. It was commissioned by William Primrose. Along with the Piano Concerto No. 3, it is his last work, and he left it incomplete at...
with the Budapest Symphony, Martinu's Rhapsody Concerto with the Bern Symphony, Chaconne by Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winner Michael Colgrass
Michael Colgrass
Michael Colgrass is an American-born Canadian musician, composer, and educator.His musical career began in Chicago as a jazz musician . He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in percussion performance and composition, including studies with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Festival...
with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a three CD set of works by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
arranged for solo viola.
As a teacher, Golani draws students from around the world to her master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
es. She holds a professorship at Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and has also taught at Birmingham Conservatoire, the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, and London's Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
.
Biography
Golani was born in Tel AvivTel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. Her father was from Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, 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, whom she met while touring America under Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
, and in 1974 the couple moved to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where Golani became a citizen in 1983. Erdesz encouraged Golani's solo career and 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. Golani is also a painter and has exhibited in America, Canada, Israel and the UK.
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
- Arnold, M. Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 108. London Musici, Mark Stephenson - Conductor. Conifer Classics 75605-51211-2 (1992, recorded 1991), Conifer Classics 75605 51263 2 (1996)
- Bach, J.S. Six Suites for solo Violoncello - transcribed for solo Viola BWV 1007-1012; Bach/Z. Kodály (arr.) Chromatic Fantasy BWV 903; J. S. Bach Chaconne BWV 1004. (2001). MVCD 1141-3 CBC Records.
- Bach, J.S. Brandenburg Concertos - Complete Set (No. 6 for two violas & Orchestra), CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Mario Bernardi - Conductor. CBC - SMCD5082
- Bach, J.S. Chromatic Fantasia (ed. Kodály) in The History of the Viola on Record, Vol IV.. Pearl - GEMS 0039
- Bartók, B. Viola Concerto; Serly Viola Concerto; Rhapsody. Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Andras Ligeti - conductor. (1990). Conifer CDCF-189 (CD)
- Bax, A. Fantasy Sonata; J. S. Bach Sonata No. 2; Morawetz Sonata for harp and viola. With Judy Loman - harp. (1994). Marquis ERAD 131
- Berlioz,H. Harold in Italy. San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Yoav Talmi - Conductor. Naxos 8.553034
- Brahms, J. The Three Piano Quartets. With the Borodin Trio. (1990). 2-Chandos CHAN-8009 (CD)
- Brahms, J. Viola Sonata in F minor opus 120, no. 1, Viola Sonata E flat opus 120, no. 2; J. Joachim Variations on an Original Theme (world premier recording) opus 10. with Konstantin Bogino - piano. (1991). Conifer CDCF 199.
- Brahms, J. Zwei Gesânge, Op. 91 in "Mareen Forrester", with Maureen Forrester - Contralto and Thomas MUraco - Piano. CBC Records PSCD-2017
- Britten, B. Lachrymae. I Musici de Montréal. (1990). Chandos CHAN-8817 (CD)
- Cherney, B. Chamber Concerto for Viola and Ten Players. NMC Ens, R. Aitken - conductor. String Trio. Otto Armin - violin, P. Schenkman - violoncello. (1981). RCI 537
- Cherney, B. Shekinah for solo viola; In Stillness Ascending, with L. P. Pelletier - piano. (1991). McGill 750036-2
- Colgrass,M. Chaconne for Viola & Orchestra (CD also includes Bloch E. Suite Hébraique; Hindemith, P. Trauermusik; Britten, B Lachrymae), with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis - Conductor. CBC SM-2-5087
- Elgar, Sir Edward. Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 (Viola transcription: L. Tertis); Bax, Arnold: Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra - 1920. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley - conductor. (1988). Conifer CFC-171/CDCF 171
- Freedman, H. Opus Pocus. With Robert Aitken - flute, Otto Armin - violin, Peter Schenkman - violoncello. (1983). Centrediscs CMC-0983
- Glick, S.I. Music for Passover. Beth Tikvah Synagogue Choir, Beth Tzedec Chor, Kernerman violin, McCartney violin, Miller violoncello, Glick conductor. 4-ACM 34 (CD)
- Hatzis, C. Pyrrichean Dances, with Beverley Johnston - Percussion, and Symphony Nova Scotia, Bernhard Gueller - Conductor, CBC Records, SMCD-5243
- Koprowski, P. Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. Toronto Symphony, Jukka-Pekka Saraste - conductor. (2001). SMCD 5206
- Martinu, B. Rhapsody-Concerto. Bern Symphony Orchestra, Peter Maag - conductor. (1986). Conifer CFC-146
- Papineau-Couture, J. Prouesse. (1986). RCI 647
- Prokofiev, S. Overture on Hebrew Themes OP. 34 - with the Borodin Trio and James Campbell. CHAN-8924
- Rubbra, E. Concerto in A for viola and orchestra, opus 75; Little violin. (1994). Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley - Conductor. Conifer CDCF 225
- Schumann, R. Märchenerzählungen. With J. Campbell - clarinet, William Tritt - piano. (1986). RCI 637
- Schumann, R. Fairly Tales Op. 113; 3 Romances Op. 94; 5 Pieces in Folk Style Op. 102; Fairy Tale Narrations with clarinet Op. 132. With Joaquín Valdepeñas - clarinet. Bernadene - Blaha piano. (1999). MVCD 1127
- Sohal, N. Shades IV in Chamber Music Vol. I - MERUCD001
- Weill, K. Kiddush (in The London Viola Sound); viola solo and 48 violas from London orchestras, Geoffrey Simon - Conductor, CALA Records - CACD0106
- Yuasa, Joji. Eye on Genesis - Revealed Time for Viola & Orchestra. Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Hiroyuki Iwaki - Conductor. FOCD-2508
- Zehavi, O. Concerto for Viola * Orchestra. Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Stanley Sperber - Conductor. MII-CD-22
- Zuckert, L. Shepherd's Sadness, Lento Triste. With Patricia Parr - piano. (1986). Jubal 5007
Compilations
- The Viola Volume I: Grigoras Dinicu: Hora Staccato; Gabriel Faure: Après un Rêve Op. 7; Claude Debussy: Romance; Antonín Dvořák: Bagatelle No. 3 Henry Purcell: Aria; Enrique Granados - Spanish Dance, Op. 37 No. 2 "Oriental" (12 Spanish Danses); Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1 - Hungarian Dance No. 3 in F Major; Arthur Benjamin: Jamaican Rumba; Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky - Hopak; Christoph Willibald Gluck: Melody from Orfeo; Richard Heuberger: Midnight Bells; Fritz Kreisler: Liebesleid - Schön Rosmarin; Carl Maria von Weber: Andante and Hungarian Rondo in C minor. J. 79.
- The Viola Volumes II & III: Franz Schubert: Sonata in A minor for Arpeggione and Piano; Robert Schumann: MärchenbilderMärchenbilder (Schumann)Märchenbilder or Fairy Tale Pictures, for Viola and Piano, Op. 113, was written by Robert Schumann in March 1851. The work is dedicated to the German violinist and conductor Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski...
, Op. 113; Joachim: Hebrew Melodies (Impressions of Byron's Poems), Op. 9; Brahms: Sonata F minor Op. 120, No. 1; Dmitri Shostakovich: Sonata for Viola and Piano Op. 147. Samuel Sanders - piano. 1984-5. 2-Masters of the Bow MBS-2021-2 - Viola Nouveau: Works by Barnes - Cherney - Jaeger - O. Joachim - Prévost. (1983). Centrediscs CMC-0883/(Prévost) 6-ACM 28
- Prouesse: Works by Jaeger - Tittle - Mozetich - Papineau-Couture - Southam. Centrediscs CMC-4492
- Rivka Golani: Works by MacIntosh - Harmon - Hiscott - Colgrass. Centrediscs CMC-5798
- I Heard a Voice from Heaven - Jewish Devotional Music of 18th - 20th Centuries, Cantor Louis DantoLouis DantoLouis Harry Danto was a lyric tenor and cantor who has won acclaim across the world for his concert appearances and recordings of Italian, Russian, and French opera repertoire, as well as in the Yiddish and cantorial music of which he is one of the world's leading exponents...
with pianist Lawrence Pitchko, Cadenza Records, Toronto, Canada. - Rivka Golani Encores: Works by Brahms, Kreisler, Paganini, Gluck, Rachmaninov, von Weber, Wieniawski, Massenet, Godowsky (Heifetz), Dinicu (Heifetz) and Bruch, with Michelle Levin, Piano, Hungaroton Classic HCD 32645
External links
- http://www.mgam.com/artists/golani/biography.html
- Canadian Music Encyclopedia article on Rivka Golani.
- http://www.blueorchid.de/uk/golani/index.php
- http://www.foxjones.com/rivka.html