Biography:

Yonatan Zak ( July 27 , 1932 – March 9 , 2024 ) was an Israeli pianist and teacher , a member of the Yuval Trio and a professor at the Buchman-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University .

Zeke was born in Tel Aviv . He studied piano with the composer and pianist Yosef Tal in Jerusalem and later with Alfred Schroeder . He graduated from the Jerusalem Academy in 1955.^[1]And went on to continue his studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York , where he studied with Beveridge Webster ( N ) and Edward Steuerman and paid off by playing chamber music with Robert Mann . Won first prize in the All-American Competition for Young Musicians.

In 1969 he returned to Israel and founded the Yuval Trio with the violinist Uri Pianka and the cellist Simcha Haled – an internationally renowned Israeli chamber ensemble . The trio was active for about 25 years and recorded many albums for Deutsche Grammophon , Centaur and more.

He was also highly regarded as an accompanist pianist, and during his musical career he accompanied many soloists, including the cellist Paul Tourtellier , the flutist Jean-Pierre Rampel , the violinists Yitzhak Perlman , Pierre Amoyel and Midori , and the singers Maureen Forster , Mira Zakai (with whom he recorded Lieder of Mahler , Webern and Alban Berg ), Sharon Rostorf-Zamir and others. In 1992 he teamed up with pianist Irena Friedland and formed a piano duo with her that recorded, among other things, for the “Romeo” company.

Zak was also known as a teacher, who taught leader accompaniment and chamber music playing at the Buchman-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, where he served as professor emeritus. He gave master classes and sat on the jury of many prestigious competitions, including the Rubinstein Competition , the Schubert Competition, the Music Competition From the 20th century in Graz , the ARD competition in Munich, the international harp competition in Israel, the singing competition named after Vera Roja and more.

Together with his wife, the singer and actress Adi Etzion-Zak , Zak organized a series of concerts for piano, voice and dance at his home in Tel Aviv, on various topics from the history of music and culture, including a marathon of Scriabin’s sonatas , Chopiniana concerts , a program about the life of Alma Mahler and more.

Jonathan and Adi Etzion-Zek have three children, two of whom are active in the field of art and entertainment: the actress Alma Zek and the television director Yoram Zek .

Died on March 9 , 2024 at the age of 91.^[2]

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