Music Director Yaniv Attar
In January of 2023, after a three-year search involving more than 200 candidates, Yaniv Attar was appointed as the fifth Music Director of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra. A native of Israel, Yaniv is the 1st prize winner of the Duna Szimfonikus Conducting Competition Budapest, multiple recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Foundation Award, and the 2009 Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award. He is also the Music Director of the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Partner with Northwest Sinfonietta.
Highlights of past seasons included collaborations with artists such as Alesio Bax, James Ehnes, Tine Thing Helseth, Sharon Isbin, Alex Klein, Jennifer Koh, Johannes Moser, and Gil Shaham. Yaniv was also one of 10 conductors from around the world who were invited to INTERACTION and conducted an orchestra composed of all of Germany’s top orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Konzerthaus Orchestra, German Symphony Orchestra, and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. Prior to his current music directorships, Yaniv completed eight seasons as Music Director of the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra, and a residency as the Assistant Conductor of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, where he conducted nearly 100 performances, and worked extensively with Maestro Justin Brown.
Drawn to orchestral conducting from early age, Yaniv has studied with Israel Edelson in Jerusalem, Virginia Allen at the Juilliard School in New York, and Neil Thomson at the Royal College of Music in London, where he was also the Associate Conductor and co-founder of the Tempus Chamber Orchestra. In 2008, Yaniv earned his Doctor of Music degree from McGill University where he studied under the tutelage of Alexis Hauser. He also studied with Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, Janos Fürst, Jorma Panula, Gustav Meier, Johannes Schlaefli, Peter Gülke, Gabor Hollerung, Neil Varon, Carl St. Clair, David Effron, Donald Thulean, and Michael Jurowski.
Yaniv has worked with the Cincinnati Symphony, Duna Szimfonikus Budapest, Dohnanyi Orchestra Budapest, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Haifa Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali Milan, Jerusalem Symphony, Lithuanian State Symphony, London Soloists’ Chamber Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, Mihail Jora Philharmonic Romania, National Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Russe Philharmonic Bulgaria, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, and Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
Yaniv is also an accomplished classical guitarist. He has studied under Irit Even-Tov, Charles Ramirez, and Sharon Isbin, for whom he served as teaching assistant at the Aspen Music Festival from 2003 to 2005. Yaniv was the first guitarist to win the Aviv Competition Prize in Israel and the Concerto Competition at the Juilliard School. Yaniv plays a 2014 Dake Traphagen Guitar. His studies have been generously supported by the America and Canada Israel Cultural Foundations, The Williamson Foundation for Music, Ronen Foundation, The Olga Forrai Foundation New York, the Morris and Beverly Baker Foundation, AVI Fellowships Switzerland, the Rislov Foundation, and the ISEF Foundation.
Yaniv’s home base is Bellingham, Washington where he lives overlooking the bay and the Olympic Mountains with his wife, Meredith, children Jonah and Lyla, and pup Gracie. When he isn’t conducting, he enjoys playing his classical guitar and adventuring with his family.
Visit Yaniv Attar’s website at yanivattar.com.
