Zvi Plesser

Israeli cellist Zvi Plesser enjoys a wide-ranging career on the world stage, playing, teaching and promoting music in varied settings from the most prestigious halls to community settings with equal devotion and excitement. Since his debut with the Israel Philharmonic under Asher Fisch, Mr. Plesser has regularly performed as a soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Camerata (including a tour to Australia and Bangkok), Israel Chamber Orchestra, Haifa Symphony, and other Israeli orchestras. On the world stage, Mr. Plesser has performed with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, Mexico National Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic, and Hamburg Symphony Orchestra under conductors including Zubin Mehta, Neville Marriner, Sergiu Comissiona, Karl Heinz Steffens, Steven Sloan, Duncan Ward, and Omer Meir Welber. Mr. Plesser has played in chamber music groups including the Huberman Quartet and Concertante Chamber Ensemble. He is frequently invited to music festivals around the world, including Marlboro Festival, Four Seasons Festival, Mayfest in the US, Utrecht International Music Festival, Rolandseck, Kuhmo Festival, ClasClas and Salon de Provence in Europe, and Le Point in Japan. From 2011 to 2021 he served as music director for Israel’s oldest chamber music festival, the Voice of Music in the Upper Galilee. In 2022 he founded, together with violinist Guy Braunstein, the Elma Music Days festival. Mr. Plesser is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Zara Nelsova. His principal teachers include Zvi Harel in Israel and David Soyer in the U.S. As a professor at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, Mr. Plesser served as head of strings as well as director of the Nazaryan chamber music program. He has also taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, Germany; the North Carolina School of the Arts; and the Morningside Musical Bridge summer program in Boston. He has been on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program since 2017 and the Juilliard School since 2024. Mr. Plesser has been heard on various radio and television programs and has recorded for Helicon, Kleos, Meridian, Naxos, Alpha and more.