Dora Schwarzberg (Israel)

Dora Schwarzberg often says to her students that art is nothing else but dipping into the past for outlining a present, looking for new horizons. Born into a family of artists in the backstage of a traveling theatre, her musical path began around the walls of the renowned School of Stolyarsky in Odessa, where many of the most beloved musicians undertook their studies – David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Elizabeth Gilels and many others. Later on, she continued her studies under the guidance of Yuri Yankelevich, who taught many of the foremost violinists during his long tenure at the Moscow Conservatory.

Paganini, ARD, Romano-Romanini and Carl Flesch (first prize under jury chairman Sir Yehudi Menuhin) are some of the competitions where she obtained significant achievements.

Among the artists she shared a stage with are Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yehudi Menuhin and Valentin Berlinsky, who was also an important mentor.

When she emigrated to the United States, the friendship and support of Isaac Stern and his family represented a turning point in her life.

Back in Europe, her vocation and engagement as Professor at the University of Music and Performing Art in Vienna has led some 20 of her students to become concertmasters of leading orchestras around the world. Since 2018 she holds a professors position at the Buchman-Metha school of music in Tel Aviv.

Her father said a few words that she always remembers and transmits to all her pupils: the violin must speak and cry! She conceives music as an act of truth, as a dynamic act and display of beauty inexplicable by words. When one is exposed to it, the miracle happens, of which man is unwillingly witness - suspended in a temporal space where the artist creates and measures him/herself, along the path to the truth.