Shelly Ezra

»Shelly Ezra is one of the leading musicians of her generation in her superior mastery of her instrument.«

Sabine Meyer

Biography

Shelly Ezra enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, a passionate chamber musician and a sought-after interpreter of both New Music and Early Music.

Her love for the clarinet was awakened by Itshak Kazap at the Conservatory Tel-Aviv. She first studied at the Musikhochschule Lübeck in the renowned class of Sabine Meyer and Reiner Wehle and was later educated by world-class teachers including Diethelm Jonas (Lübeck), Joy Farral (London), Martin Spangenberg (Weimar), Chen Halevi, Linde Brunmayr-Tutz and Anton Steck (Trossingen). Further she received important influences from Charles Neidich, Sharon Kam, Lorenzo Coppola and at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt.

Shelly Ezra is a laureate of national and international competitions such as ARD Music Competition in Munich, Braunschweig International Promotion Prize – Mozart Competition, Freiburg International Clarinet Competition, Stockhausen Prize and the Tel Aviv Conservatory Competition. With her chamber-music ensembles she won prizes at the European Chamber Music Competition Karlsruhe (duo), the Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition Salzburg and the Possehl Music Prize Lübeck (trio).

She was granted scholarships by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, the German Music-Life Foundation, the Chamber Music Foundation “Villa Musica“, the Franz-Lizst Foundation, the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation, the Gotthard-Schierse Foundation, the Marie-Louise Imbusch Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

As a soloist she has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Munich, Classical Philharmonic Bonn, Jena Philharmonic, Philharmonic of the Nations, Collegium Musicum Basel, Camerata Moravia and the Israeli Chamber Orchestra.

She has performed extensively on important stages across Europe and the world, such as Musikverein Wien, Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Wigmore Hall in London, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Center Pompidou in Paris, Rudolphinum in Prague, Seoul Arts Center, Beethovenhalle Bonn, Herkulessaal Munich, Mozarteum Salzburg, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Meistersingerhalle Nuremberg, Bremen Concert House Die Glocke and Rudolf-Oetker-Halle Bielefeld. She was also invited to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Brahms Festival Lübeck, the Braunschweig Classix Festival, the biennial festival cresc … for Modern Music Frankfurt Rhein Main, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the International Music Festival Český Krumlov.

Shelly Ezra gained valuable orchestral experience as principal-clarinettist with Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal, with the Korean Broadcast Symphony Orchestra in Seoul and with the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra, Germany. Her chamber music partners include Quatuor Ysaÿe, Apollon Musagete Quartet, Alinde Quartet, Quatuor Psophos and the Eisler Quartet, as well as Menahem Pressler, Sabine Meyer, David Walter, Radovan Vlatković, Boris Garlitsky, Martin Ostertag, Rainer Kussmaul, Christian Lampert, Diethelm Jonas and Ingo Goritzki.

In addition, she has participated in CD productions of German Radio, Bavarian Radio and of the labels Naxos and Ars. Since 2018 she has been teaching at the Academy for Music Trossingen. Over the years she has given courses in Hanover, Frankfurt, Lübeck, Wolfenbüttel, Waldshut-Tiengen and the State-Academy Schlitz. Her teaching also lead her to Denmark, Slovakia, Portugal, Israel and South America and she is involved in various education programs such as “Rhapsody in School”.