Guy Ben-Ziony grew up in Israel’s scenic Jezreel Valley. At the age of 9, after seeingThe Waltz King, the Walt Disney film about Johann Strauss, he wanted nothing more than to play the violin. A short time later he switched over to the viola and took lessons with leading teachers of his homeland, including Chaim Taub, Gad Lewertoff and David Chen.
Encounters with the renowned violist Tabea Zimmermann influenced him so greatly that he went to Frankfurt to study with her.
Later he continued studying with Tatiana Masurenko at the University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig, and he performed Bartók’s Viola Concerto for his concert exam under the direction of Daniel Harding, passing with distinction. Soon thereafter, he was invited to important music festivals as an internationally respected chamber musician, including the Lockenhaus Festival, the Young Artist’s Festival in Davos, the Spannungen Heimbach Festival and the legendary Prussia Cove Festival, playing alongside artists such as Gidon Kremer, Lisa Batiashvili, Christian tetzlaff, or Menachem Pressler, among many others.
As a soloist he played with many Israeli and European orchestras such as the Camerata Nordica, Offenbacher Kammerorchester, Israel Chamber Orchestra or the Tel Aviv Soloists.
He was a member of the Zapolski String Quartet from Denmark and the Waldstein Ensemble Wien, performing in many of Europe’s major concert halls (Vienna Musikverein, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall in London, among others). His close collaboration with contemporary composers as founding member of the “Israeli Chamber Project” has taken him upon numerous innovative paths. He has also searched for symbiotic collaborations in Germany, for example with the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests in Berlin, with which he performed highly acclaimed choreographic concertGefaltet.
Guy Ben-Ziony is a welcomed guest principle violist with many leading chamber and symphonic orchestras in Europe, including, Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt Radio Symphony orchestras, Bamberg Symphony, Camerata Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, or Amsterdam Sinfonietta. His Debut solo CD, entitled Monodialogue was released in 2016 with Genuine Classics to great critical acclaim. From 2006 untill 2017 Guy Ben-Ziony has been a Professor for viola at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. The 2017-2018 season featured him as member of the Internationally renowned Pacifica String Quartet and Visiting Professor at the Jacobs School of Music, Bloomington, Indiana. He continues to give masterclasses in Europe and in the USA.
