Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra – Biography

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Yaniv DinurYaniv Dinur

Assistant Conductor

Conductor Yaniv Dinur, currently assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, was born in Jerusalem in 1981. He has performed with orchestras in Israel, Europe, the United States, Canada, and Mexico. He is a winner of numerous conducting awards, among them the 2nd Prize at the 2009 Mata International Conducting Competition in Mexico, and the

Yuri Ahronovitch 1st Prize in the 2005 Aviv Conducting Competitions in Israel. Mr. Dinur was chosen by the League of American Orchestras to be a featured conductor in the 2011 Bruno Walter Conducting Preview, and is a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Zubin Mehta Scholarship Endowment.

Dinur started his conducting career at the age of 19, performing with the Israel Camerata, making him the youngest conductor ever to conduct an orchestra in Israel. Since then, he also conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, New World Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Solisti di Perugia, Torino Philharmonic, Portugal Symphony Orchestra, So a Festival Orchestra, State Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM in Mexico, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.

Dinur has worked closely with such world-class musicians as Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pinchas Zukerman, and Kurt Masur. He holds a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, where he studied with

Prof. Kenneth Kiesler.Yaniv Dinur began studying the piano at the age of 6 with his aunt, Olga Shachar, and later with Prof. Alexander Tamir, Tatiana Alexanderov, and Mark Dukelsky. At
the age of 16, he began to study conducting with Dr. Evgeny Zirlin. While still in high school, Dinur began his formal studies with Dr. Zirlin at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. After graduating from the Jerusalem Academy, he studied privately with conductor Mendi Rodan. He served in the Israeli army’s Excellent Musicians unit. During his service tenure, he conducted the Education Corps Orchestra and wrote musical arrangements for the army’s various ensembles.

About the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, under the dynamic leadership of Music Director Edo de Waart, is among the finest orchestras in the nation. Since its inception in 1959, the MSO has found innovative ways to give music a home in the region, develop music appreciation and talent among area youth, and raise the national reputation of Milwaukee.

Now in his eighth and final season as music director, Maestro de Waart’s tenure has included sold-out concerts, critical acclaim, and a celebrated performance at Carnegie Hall. Following the 2016.17 season, Maestro de Waart will become the MSO’s conductor laureate.

The MSO’s full-time professional musicians perform more than 135 classics, pops, family, education, and community concerts each season in venues throughout the state. A pioneer among American orchestras, the MSO has performed world and American premieres of works by John Adams, Roberto Sierra, Phillip Glass, Geoffrey Gordon, Marc Neikrug, and Matthias Pintscher, as well as garnered national recognition as the first American orchestra to offer live recordings on iTunes. Now in its 45th season, the orchestra’s nationally syndicated radio broadcast series, the longest consecutive-running series of any U.S. orchestra, is heard annually by 3.8 million listeners on 183 subscriber stations in 38 of the top 100 markets.

The MSO’s standard of excellence extends beyond the concert hall and into the community, reaching more than 40,000 children and their families through its Arts in Community Education (ACE) program, Youth and Teen concerts, Meet the Music pre-concert talks, and Friday Evening Post-Concert Talkbacks. Celebrating its 27th year, the nationally-recognized ACE program integrates arts education across all subjects and disciplines, providing opportunities for students when budget cuts may eliminate arts programming. The program provides lesson plans and supporting materials, classroom visits from MSO musician ensembles and artists from local organizations, and an MSO concert tailored to each grade level. This season, more than 7,200 students and 500 teachers and faculty in 24 Southeastern Wisconsin schools will participate in ACE.

MSO Spring 2017 Personnel (pdf)