Pianist
Israel Gursky has been making a name for himself both in Europe and in the US as conductor, coach and collaborative pianist. Born in Tel Aviv and trained in New York, he has made his professional conducting debut in 2007, leading critically-acclaimed performances of Don Giovanni at the Washington National Opera. Since then, he has guest-conducted with Los Angeles Opera, Teatro de Bellas Artes and the Cervantino Festival, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Maine , Opera Birmingham, Manhattan School of Music, University of Michigan and Yale School of Music.
Between 2014 and 2017 he was Kapellmeister of Theater Regensburg in Germany, where he has conducted over 120 performances, and since the 2017-18 season he has been Kapellmeister and Studienleiter at Theater Bremen.
A frequent collaborator with Plácido Domingo, he has since 2009 conducted many of Mr. Domingo's concerts throughout the world, and has been official accompanist and assistant conductor of the Operalia Competition since 2003.
As principal conductor of NYC's Teatro Grattacielo since 2012 he has led US-Premieres of several important verismo-Operas.
He is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University and the Rubin Academy of Music, and has trained at the Tanglewood Music Center, Merola Opera Program and the Verbier Festival. He has studied conducting with Otto-Werner Müller, Kenneth Kiesler and David Gilbert, piano with Arie Vardi and Gilbert Kalish, and accompanying with Thomas Muraco and Dalton Baldwin.