Bar Avni

Conductor, Bar Avni is the First Prize winner of the 2024 La Maestra competition in Paris, a Prize awarded to her by an illustrious jury chaired by Natalie Stutzmann. Avni was the clear winner and swept the board at the competition, also winning The Orchestra Prize, the ‘Arte Prize’, the ‘Echo Award’ and the ‘Prize of the French Concert Halls and Orchestras’. For the next two years, she is a scholarship holder of the La Maestra Academy. There has subsequently been great interest in her work with invitations coming immediately from a number of major international orchestras. Avni’s astute and creative programming coupled with her clear, yet elegant conducting style is making a strong impression on all who encounter her. Bar Avni is currently Chief Conductor of the Bayer Philharmoniker, a position she has held since 2021. She is the first female conductor to hold this position in the orchestra’s 120 year history. She is strongly committed to the promotion of new, young talent and has worked closely with the team in Bayer to devise a number of exciting music education projects, a topic she feels very strongly about. Since her conducting debut in 2016, Avni has worked with a variety of different orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Hamburg Camerata.  Her flexibility and her curiosity when it comes to programme making and her versatility and ability in a wider range of repertoire are regularly remarked on. Barbara Hannigan has been a key supporter and adviser to Bar Avni and earlier in 2024, Avni made her debuts with the WDR Funkhaus Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony as assistant to Ms Hannigan, sharing the podium at the subsequent concerts.  Orchestras Avni has already been invited to conduct in the coming seasons include the Orchestre National de Lille and the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Hamburg State Youth Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as well as assistantships with Klaus Mäkelä in Paris (Orchestre de Paris) and Francois-Xavier Roth in Cologne. A trained classical percussionist, the Israeli conductor initially performed in her country’s leading orchestras, after which her desire to conduct took her to Tel Aviv where she studied with Yoav Talmi, later becoming the assistant conductor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra under Talmi’s direction.  She continued her studies with Martin Sieghart in Graz and Ulrich Windfuhr in Hamburg. In 2017/18, Avni was assistant to General Music Director, Peter Kuhn, at the Bergischer Symphoniker and in 2021, she became the youngest prize-winner and Scholarship holder of the International Kurt Masur Institute.