Matan Porat, Piano

Biography

Regarded as a musician of great insight and sensitivity, Israel-born pianist and composer, Matan Porat has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with all major Symphony and Chamber Orchestras in Israel, with such conductors as James Conlon, Lawrence Foster and Mendi Rodan.

Matan Porat has performed in many important venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and the Alhambra’s Palacio Carlos V in Grenada, Spain.

An avid chamber music player, Mr. Porat has participated in many distinguished festivals, including Marlboro, Ravinia, Verbier, Salzburg, Bath, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, and upon invitation of Daniel Barenboim in the West-Eastern Divan workshops. Other chamber appearances include performances with the Ysaÿe and Jerusalem Quartets, Dorothea Röchmann, Kim Kashkashian, Emmanuel Pahud and members of the Guarneri Quartet.

His varied concert program includes Bach’s Goldberg Variations and 6 partitas, and the two monumental Ives sonatas. A passionate contemporary music performer, Mr. Porat has premiered works by Philippe Schoeller and Gideon Lewensohn, among others.

He began his piano studies with Emanuel Krasovsky at the Tel-Aviv Rubin Academy. Later he was artist-in-residence in Belgais, Portugal, studying and assisting Maria João Pires, and obtained his Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Between 2006 and 2008, he lived in London, working extensively with Murray Perahia.

Winner of the 2009 Prime Minister Award for composers, Mr. Porat has studied composition with Ruben Seroussi and George Benjamin. His works were commissioned by Maria João Pires, Kim Kashkashian, Elena Bashkirova and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, the AICF’s Spring Competitions and others, and were premiered at the Montpellier, Schleswig-Holstein and Menuhin Gstaad festivals to general acclaim. A number of his compositions were recorded on a SONY disc, released in August 2010. Among his performed pieces are an opera, “Animal Farm”, a mandolin concerto, theatre pieces trilogy for an actor and ensemble based on stories by Kafka, Orwell and Thomas Mann, and many chamber music works.

Mr. Porat is currently residing in Berlin. Among his projects for this season is an opera production, The Magic Flute, with legendary theatre director Peter Brook in Paris, Milan, London and New York.