Winner of a 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2005 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, SHAI WOSNER has been described by The New York Times as "a superb pianist" and by The Financial Times as "an artist to follow keenly." He is active as a soloist and chamber musician, and his uniquely intellectual and poetic approach has caught the attention of audiences and critics alike.

Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 with the Chicago Civic Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim conducting, Wosner has performed with many major orchestras in the United States, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus, Houston, and San Francisco; and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, among others. He has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Lawrence Foster, Zubin Mehta, Peter Oundjian, and Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Highlights of Wosner's 2006/07 activities include debuts with the Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Pacific Symphony orchestras; chamber music performances in Philadelphia, St. Paul, and Portland; and a tour with Christian Tetzlaff and fellow laureates of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust to London, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Vienna. During the summer of 2006, Wosner performed at summer festivals such as Ravinia (Chicago Symphony / Conlon), Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles Philharmonic / Slatkin), Bravo! Vail (Dallas Symphony / Remmereit), and La Jolla's SummerFest.

Wosner gave his New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in February 2004 to critical acclaim. He has also given recitals in Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Vancouver, Toronto, Kalamazoo, and on Ravinia's "Rising Stars" series, and recently recorded works of Beethoven, Schumann, and Chopin for the radio program "St. Paul Sunday." A sought-after chamber music collaborator, Wosner was a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two and has performed at chamber music festivals including Bargemusic, the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland (OR), and the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and he recently performed in duo recital with cellist Claudio Bohorquez at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Abroad, Wosner made his Vienna Philharmonic debut in Salzburg in January 2006 as part of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. He has also appeared with the Barcelona Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Orchestre National de Belgique, and the Staatskapelle Berlin, among others. He made his London Proms debut in 2003 in a performance of Mozart's Concerto for Three Pianos with pianists Daniel Barenboim and Saleem Abboud-Ashkar, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Performances of contemporary music are an important component of Wosner's activities. In January 2000, he performed Bright Sheng's Red Silk Dance with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey conducting. More recently, Wosner performed at the University of California-Berkeley's Edge Festival (June 2003) on a program dedicated to the music of John Adams. At the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Wosner, together with pianist Ju-Ping Song, gave the United States premiere of Per Nørgård's Unendlicher Empfang.

A prizewinner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1999, Wosner has received awards in other international piano competitions, notably in Senigallia, Italy, in Palm Beach, and at the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv (1995). He has been a recipient of numerous America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships and has been featured on radio and television in the United States, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Israel.

Born in Israel in 1976, Shai Wosner studied for 12 years with Emanuel Krasovsky in Tel Aviv. In addition, he studied composition, theory, and improvisation with André Hajdu, with whom he has participated in various improvisation concerts and activities. His studies continued at the Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax.

Shai Wosner resides in New York City with his wife, Roni Tamari.

08/07