Moti Shmitt
Moti Shmitt was born in Vilna, Lithuania and began his musical journey at the age of five with the Vilnius Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied violin, composition and conducting at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. He is a winner of awards in two international competitions - named after Paganini in Genoa (Italy) and Jacques Thibaud in Paris. The audience and the critics appreciated the uniqueness, sound quality and virtuosity of his playing.
Upon making aliyah, he was the principal violinist of the Israeli Chamber Orchestra and became conductor and musical director of the Tel Aviv Youth Orchestra. He has been teaching since 1974 at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. He is a senior lecturer. He has created generations of violinists, some of whom have become famous soloists in Israel and abroad. He has devoted quite a bit of his time to nurturing the younger generation within the framework of conservatories and schools in the country, as well as part of the "Keshet Eilon" project. Some of his students serve as senior teachers at conservatories in the country.
He was appointed principle violinist of the Jerusalem Symphony - Broadcasting Authority Orchestra in 1978, and has held this position for many years. At the same time, he founded the Jerusalem String Quartet. In the 1980s, he founded the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, which he led as musical director and conductor for ten years.
In 2007, he was appointed musical director and conductor of the Israel String Orchestra. Since then, the orchestra has gained wide international recognition.
Well-known composers have written works especially for Moti Shmitt. According to critics and the press, he is called a "talking violin."
Schmitt himself writes chamber music, theater music and orchestras.
Yanina and the Beast, Vilna, 1943.
A persecuted Jewish mother leaves her infant daughter in the arms of a beautiful young Polish woman of noble descent. An SS officer taken by the woman’s beauty reveals the secret but does not betray her and deserts to the woods of Lithuania. He is taken prisoner by fighting partisans and takes the secret to his grave.
Israeli violinist and composer Motti Shmitt heard such a story from his father, Isser, who was a commander with the fighting partisans in those woods. Such a story has been told by world famous Yiddish poet and fighting partisan under Isser’s commandment, Abraham Sutzkever.
The story and the story of the story unite in a performance for an actress, cello and piano. Music by Motti Schmitt, performance created by singer and performer Ruth Levin, daughter of Leibu Levin, the “Jewish Schubert”.
“We are all but musical notes”, said once poet Abraham Sutzkever.
Ruth Levin – directing and acting
Motti Schmitt – Music
Daniel Schwartz – Cello
Olga Greenhut – Piano
Theater adaptation – Itzhak Pecker, Ruth Levin
Background voices – Olga Avigail, Leibu Levin, Ruth Levin
From: Habama
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