Uzi Wiesel

Internationally known Israeli cellist Uzi Wiesel has won numerous awards including the 1953 USA Piatigorsky Prize, the 1957 Moscow International Concours, and the Pablo Casals International Concours in 1961. In 1975 the Israeli Council of Culture and Arts awarded him a special national prize. In November 1996 Indiana University honored him with the title Chevalier du Violoncelle in recognition of his universal contributions to the art of playing and teaching the cello.

In 1954, after his graduation with honors from the Juilliard School of Music in New York, he spent several months with Pablo Casals in Prades, France.

Mr. Wiesel has performed internationally as a soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist. He has devoted much of his time to Baroque music including thesis on the performance of Bach’s 3rd and 5th Suites for solo cello. He has also specialized in 20th century repertoire performing concerti by Beno, Ligeti and Lutoslawski. A dedicated supporter of Israeli music, he has premiered and recorded many concerti and solo pieces written and dedicated to him by Israeli composers. Mr. Wiesel has performed with many world-renowned artists including Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zuckerman, Itzak Perlman and Lukas Foss. He was a founding member of the renowned Tel Aviv String Quartet, and has recorded and played with them throughout the world for more than 30 years. He frequently performs with his pianist son, Arnan Wiesel.

As a full professor at the Tel Aviv University Academy of Music since 1965, Mr. Wiesel dedicates much of his time to teaching. His students are prize-winners in international competitions, concertmasters, chamber music players and teachers. He has been a guest professor in the USA, Germany and Australia, and is frequently invited to give master classes in those countries as well as Holland, Russia and Hungary. For more than 10 years he was the chamber music director of the Bayreuth International Youth Festival in Germany.

Mr. Wiesel is often seen as a jury member at international competitions. He took part in the First World Cello Congress as a performing artist and panel member. Strad published many of his articles.