1st prize winner of the International Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2018, Israeli born Avinoam Shalev began his piano studies at the age of six. He began his bachelor studies in piano performance (with Prof. Tomer Lev) and musicology and subsequently changed his instrumental subjects to harpsichord (with Dr. Marina Minkin) and organ (with Mr. Alexander Gorin). He graduated summa cum laude and received a full scholarship for the Accademia Villa Bossi program in Italy. He then went on to complete two Master’s degrees with Prof. Zvi Meniker at the Musikhochschule Hannover in Germany, on harpsichord and historical pianos, respectively. Between 2018-2020 he worked as an adjunct professor at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, Germany.
He started his solo career at 17, playing Tchaikovsky’s 1st piano concerto on a European concert tour. Since then he has played solo recitals on historical keyboard instruments in venues in France and Northern Italy and at such festivals as the Göttingen International Handel Festival and the Bach Festival in Leipzig, Toujours Mozart Festival in Israel. He had his Wigmore Hall debut in early 2019 and performed that summer as a soloist with the Baroque orchestra Il Gusto Barocco at the Bachwoche Ansbach Festival.
In 2020 he was scheduled to perform solo recitals through the Keyboard Trust at various venues in England and Scotland. 2021 will see him performing at the Handel House in Halle, the Göttingen International Handel Festival, the Bach Festival in Leipzig and private venues in England, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany.
Avinoam is an avid chamber music player. In 2014 he started the prize-winning, German-Israeli Ensemble Arava. Since 2015 he has been a member of the Baroque orchestra la festa musicale as both soloist and continuo player. With the Lynx Ensemble, he brings together Swedish folk and Baroque music. Le Concert des Amis performs early music by heart in unconventional venues. The show “Händel goes Tinder” presents the composer’s music with a sophisticated, entertaining, modern story. In 2020 he recorded multiple chamber music CDs with these groups.
Avinoam has been a scholarship recipient of Deutschlandstipendium, Live Music Now Hannover and Berlin and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. He received the pianist’s award at the national German voice competition (BWG) in Berlin in 2014. In 2018 he won the 1st prize and the Bärenreiter prize on harpsichord at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig.
