Shai Wosner - Biography

Shai Wosner was supported by BBT between 2005 and 2012.  For an up to date biography go to www.opus3artists.com.

Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of repertoire – from Mozart to the music of today – reflect a degree of virtuosity and intellectual curiosity that has made him a favorite among audiences and critics, who note his “keen musical mind and deep musical soul” (NPR’s All Things Considered).

In addition to his work as a solo recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed with major orchestras across the U.S., including the Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has performed abroad with the Staatskapelle Berlin, Vienna Philharmonic, and West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, among many other ensembles.

He records principally for Onyx Classics, and his acclaimed recordings range from sonatas by Schubert and Sciarrino, to chamber works by Bartók and Kurtág, to concerti by Haydn and Ligeti.

He is a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award—a prize he used to commission Michael Hersch’s concerto Along the Ravines, which he performed with the Seattle Symphony and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. He was in residence with the BBC as a New Generation Artist and is an alumnus of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two.

Born in Israel, Mr. Wosner studied piano with Opher Brayer and Emanuel Krasovsky, as well as composition, theory, and improvisation with André Hajdu, and at The Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax.

Last updated: October 2018

I guess one way to describe receiving the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award is being a kid in a candy store…! It is such a terrific opportunity to realize some long-awaiting ideas, while sidestepping obstacles that young artists normally encounter. The support this award gives is truly unique and laudable because it combines the practical with the creative, through the collaboration with the Trust and its panel. And for that I am deeply grateful.

Photographs by Marco Borggreve