Biography
Giora Schmidt was born into a family of musicians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents emigrated from Israel in 1978, and are formerly of the Philadelphia Opera Company Orchestra. His mother, Michal Schmidt is a cellist and pianist and is on the faculty of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges and the University of Pennsylvania. His father, Dov Schmidt is a violinist and businessman.
Schmidt began his violin studies at the age of four, and by 12 was commuting between Philadelphia and New York to study with Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music. Schmidt did not truly become serious until the age of 14 when he began spending summers at the Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island, NY. There he met Itzhak Perlman who invited Schmidt to study with him and the late violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard Pre-College.
In between his lessons in New York, Schmidt worked intensely with violinist Geoffrey Michaels on scales, etudes and the Sonatas and Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach – in the tradition of Efrem Zimbalist and Oscar Shumsky.
At 18, Schmidt entered the Juilliard School where he continued his studies with Perlman and DeLay, graduating in 2004. From 2004-2006 he was chosen to be a Starling Fellow where he taught as Itzhak Perlman's assistant at the Juilliard School.
He has appeared as soloist with numerous symphony orchestras around the globe including Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM (Mexico City), Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile, Sendai Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic. In February 2003, he made his Carnegie Hall debut performing the Barber Violin Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony
Schmidt is a regular guest at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and has collaborated with such acclaimed musicians as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Lynn Harrell, Anne Sofie von Otter, Ralph Kirshbaum and Michael Tree.
Committed to education and sharing his passion for music, Schmidt regularly seeks out new ways of reaching young violinists and music lovers through technology and social media.
His Facebook page Violinist Giora Schmidt, has over 40,000 followers.
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