Katya Polin   baroque violin, recorder

Katya Polin

Katya was born in Moscow in 1987 and immigrated to Israel in 1991. She started her recorder studies at the age of 9 with Josef Sharon and continued with Michael Meltzer and Drora Bruck. At the age of 13 started to learn the viola with Dr. Lilach Levanon, and continued with Mr. Roman Spitzer.
Katya is a graduate of the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, the Giv’ataym Conservatory and the Jerusalem Music Centre Young Musicians Unit. As a member of this unit, Katya has played and recorded for the radio with various chamber ensembles.

Katya served in the IDF as an Outstanding Musician and is a recipient of America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships since 1998 on both viola and recorder.
At the age of 13 Katya won the 1st prize at the "Maestro" competition, and since then won several competitions in Israel and abroad, among them the Young Artist competition, the Paul Ben-Haim competition, the Competition for soloists of the Jerusalem Music Academy, International Recorder competition in Germany, First International Recorder competition in Montreal, and others.

She participated in numerous festivals in Israel and abroad such as Abu Gosh, Kfar Blum, Yehiam, Appolonia, Varazdin Baroque Evenings, Aspen Music Festival, Brezice Early Music Festival and others. She performs as a soloist with many orchestras, including The Rudolstadt Symphony Orchestra cond. - Mark Voloch, The Conservatoire de Paris Orchestra cond. - David Stern, The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Orchestra cond. - Mendi Rodan,The Thelma Yellin Symphony Orchestra cond. – Menachem Nebenhaus, The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra cond. - Yaniv Dinur, The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra cond. - Zubin Mehta, among others.

Katya is a dedicated chamber Musician: she is a member of Ensemble PHOENIX, the Israeli Contemporary Music String Quartet , the Barrocade and The Israeli Bach Soloists.


PHOENIX members (in random order)