Halleli Smoly
Halleli Smoly
Halleli Smoly, 15 years old, began playing the piano at the age of 6. She studies at the Kfar Saba Conservatory under the devoted guidance of her piano teacher, Mrs. Adela Umansky. Furthermore, at the age of 11, Halleli was recognized by the program of cultivating gifted and outstanding music students, of the Israeli Ministry of Education.
Halleli has been a grant recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship with outstanding honors since she was 11 years old. In addition, she was awarded excellence scholarships by the "Zefonot Culture Foundation" for the advancement of young musicians. In 2017, when she was only 9 years old, she was invited by the Zefonot Culture Foundation to play in a concert with the Romanian international pianist, Daniel Ciobanu, who won second place in that year's Rubinstein Piano Competition. Five years later, at the age of 14, Daniel Ciobanu hosted Halleli again in a concert of the Zefonot Culture Foundation, and this time they excited the audience when they played piano 4-hands.
Halleli is the 1st Absolute Category Winner (ages 12-14) of the Orbetello International Piano Competition 2023 in Italy. The judges awarded her a perfect score of 100 out of 100 points. Halleli is also the first prize winner of the 2023 Pnina Salzman Israel National Piano Competition.
In 2024, when she was 15, Halleli won the “Globe International Piano Competition”, that was held in Hilversum, The Netherlands.
Moreover, she won first prize in the "Golden Key Piano Competition" (Tel Aviv 2015, when she was only 7 years old), second prize in the "Piano Forever National Competition" (Ashdod 2020, when she was 11 years old, and Ashdod 2023, when she was 15), the first prize in the first Competition of the Piano Department of The Kfar Saba Conservatory (2022, when she was 13 years old), and also first prize in the second competition of the Piano Department of The Kfar Saba Conservatory (2023, at the age of 15), she is also a second prize winner at the “Scherzo International Piano Competition” (Tel Aviv 2024, when she was 15 years old).
After an audition for young soloists in the summer of 2023, Halleli was informed that a panel of judges had chosen her to play as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Philharmonic's "Key Program". The concert took place at the beginning of 2024 on the stage of the Charles Bronfman Cultural Hall in Tel Aviv and as part of it, Halleli played Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonic.
Since the age of 10, Halleli has been taking part in the Jerusalem Music Center's (JMC) Outstanding Young Pianists Program, led by the great pianist Maestro Murray Perahia, where she participates in a variety of musical activities. These include masterclasses with maestro Perahia and other leading pianists from throughout the world, weekly instruction in chamber music playing as part of the “David Goldman Program for Outstanding Young Musicians”, practical and theoretical lessons, intensive residential weekends and courses and performance opportunities. On Holocaust Remembrance Day in April 2023, on the recommendation of the JMC, the Israeli national broadcasting radio classical station invited 14-year-old Halleli, to record archived work, piano miniature composed by the child prodigy, pianist and composer Josima Feldschuh, who died outside the Warsaw ghetto at the age of 14.
Halleli also participates in the Master Classes program of the Edward Aldwell Institute at the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem. For two years in row, when she was 13 years old, and then when she was 14 years old, she participated as the youngest pianist in the "Tel Hai International Piano Master Classes" festival, one of the leading programs in its field in the world, where she attained great achievements.
Halleli has participated in master classes with many leading musicians from Israel and from around the world, including Maestro Murray Perahia, Victor Rosenbaum, Boris Berman, Pavlina Dokovska, Gerlinde Otto, Massimiliano Ferrati, Claudius Tanski, Ilya Friedberg, Emanuel Krasovsky, Asaf Zohar and Lea Agmon.
