Assaf Sommer

Assaf Sommer was born in Jerusalem, Israel and started taking piano lessons at the age of 5. At the age of 12 he was accepted to the Rubin Conservatory of Music in Jerusalem from which he graduated with excellence at the age of 17. He was recommended by a board of the Ministry of Education to be given the status of an “outstanding musician” for his mandatory service in the Israeli Army, between the years 1996-1999. Assaf received second prize at the Summit Music Festival in New York in 1998. He gave his New York debut there the following year. Assaf earned his Bachelor’s degree at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem under the guidance of Mark and Tatiana Dukelsky and Prof. Benjamin Oren. He was a prize winner from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation for the years 2000-2003. He was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music and was the only student of the renowned pianist Eugene Istomin in 2002. He later studied with James Tocco and graduated in 2004. As a winner of Artists International he was presented in solo recital debut in Carnegie Hall in 2006. The Same year he began his Doctoral studies at College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati in the studio of Eugene Pridonoff. Assaf has participated in Master classes with Emanuel Ax and Oxana Yablonskaya from Juilliard, Vladimir Viardo, Alexander Korsantia, Jeffery Swan, Malcolm Bilson, Frederic Rzewski, and Ian Hobson among others. He performed both solo and chamber concerts in New York, Virginia, Ohio, Chicago, St. Lewis, and throughout Israel. In 2009 Assaf Sommer was a semi-finalist in the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City. Recent performances include a solo recital at Steinway Hall in Manhattan and three solo performances with the Cincinnati Ballet at the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati. He now pursues both Doctoral degree and Artist Diploma at CCM, and studies piano with Michael Chertock and is the teaching assistant and student of the harpsichordist Vivian Montgomery.