“ Any classical music lover who missed this concert should weep”
Creative polymath Yaniv Segal has achieved critical success since childhood for his work as a conductor, composer, actor, and violinist. A rising star who is “redefining classical music” (Esquire Magazine), Yaniv is Music Director of the Salina Symphony, Conductor Laureate and Artistic Advisor of the Chelsea Symphony, and former Assistant Conductor of the Naples Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He has assisted at the New York Philharmonic and collaborated with performers ranging from Yitzhak Perlman to the Beach Boys. Guest conducting engagements have included the Minnesota Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Cracovia, and Beethoven Academy Orchestra, with performances described as “enthusiastic, lively, and incisive” (Giornale di Sicilia) and “illuminating” (New York Times).
“A winner!”
“All of these works are fresh, much more than simple transcriptions, and Segal deserves credit for a genuinely novel program.”
In 2020, NAXOS released Yaniv’s Beethoven REimagined, a commercial recording made with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Called “exciting [and] outrageous” by the Times of London, the album presents contemporary music inspired by Beethoven arranged and written by Yaniv as well as composer/DJ Gabriel Prokofiev. Previous commercial releases include the works of David Chesky on Joy and Sorrow, and The Mice War–an opera that teaches the children about the folly of war.
Yaniv is a founder and former Artistic Director of the “harrowingly relevant” (Lucid Culture) Chelsea Symphony, and his interpretation of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the orchestra was called an “earnest, vibrant account” (New York Times). This dynamic and collaborative ensemble continues to provide major opportunities for rising and established conductors, composers, and instrumentalists in the TriState area. As an important cultural presence in New York, the orchestra has premiered over fifty works, and can be seen and heard on the hit Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle.
Drawing on his experience as a music educator and father, Yaniv wrote The Harmony Games in 2018 to introduce school-age children to the orchestra while connecting music and math; it has already been performed over fifty times. Yaniv’s works have recently been performed by the Reno Philharmonic, Ashland Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Youth Symphony and Classical Orchestra, and Norwalk Symphony. As a composer, Yaniv believes that music should be relevant to today’s audiences and connected to contemporary culture. The Chelsea Symphony premiered his Cello Concerto in 2015 and Rite of Spring (Redux) – a reworking of Stravinsky’s seminal work that includes electric guitar, bass guitar, and saxophone – in 2013.
“Redefining classical music”
Yaniv is a versatile performer who was profiled as one of the rising stars that is “redefining classical music” (Esquire Magazine) and twice was a violin soloist with his hometown Yonkers Philharmonic. As a child he sang in the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus and toured the US and Japan in the First National Tour of The Secret Garden. His stage acting career culminated in a role in Tom Stoppard's Hapgood at Lincoln Center where he “convinces as Hapgood’s adolescent son” (New York Times). In the nineties he could be widely heard singing on TV commercials for Pepsi as well as on CDs ranging from classical opera to rock and folk music.
“Enthusiastic, lively, and incisive”
Yaniv was invited to the inaugural Castleton Festival by Lorin Maazel, and studied with Kurt Masur at seminars in the USA and Europe. He was selected as one of 18 participants (out of over 350 applicants) in the 2018 Evgeny Svetlanov Competition in Paris and is mentored by Andrey Boreyko and Leonard Slatkin. In 2013, Yaniv completed graduate studies at the University of Michigan with renowned conducting pedagogue Kenneth Kiesler and MacArthur Award winning composer Bright Sheng.
The son of a Polish violinist and an Israeli violin-maker, Yaniv grew up in New York speaking three languages in a multi-cultural household. In support of his education, achievements, and contributions to American Society he was a recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 2009.
“cause for celebration”
-Updated May 29, 2022