“Conductor Lahav Shani’s life is significantly different from that of most people his age,” writes Amir Mandel in Monday’s (12/19) Haaretz (Israel). “ ‘Usually you ask people about their plans for the next six months. At the moment I have plans until 2023, and I hope to carry them out,’ the 27-year-old says. In October 2013, Shani conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s opening concert of that season, after he was asked to substitute for another conductor…. [This month] Shani is performing as a guest conductor, but with an impressive day job already lined up: The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra named him as its chief conductor, starting in September 2018. Lahav’s career has advanced rapidly. He first played with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as a piano soloist at age 18. In 2009, he started to study conducting and, a year later, music director Zubin Mehta invited him to join an IPO tour abroad as both pianist and assistant conductor…. He won the prestigious Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2013…. He has conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras…. This year, another acclaimed orchestra gambled on Shani: the Rotterdam Philharmonic, which, after just one performance, chose him as its next chief conductor.”
Posted December 21, 2016
