December 25, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 7 Ridgewood Concert by Israeli musicians coming to temple Shmuel Katz Temple Israel and JCC of Ridgewood continues this year’s series of “Winter Music Saturdays” on Jan. 11. Three musi- cians, including Israeli musicians Shmuel Katz, Moran Katz, and pianist Anna Polonsky, will play works by Mozart and Max Bruch. The evening will begin at 7:45 with a brief Havdalah service, followed by the hour-long concert and a dessert recep- tion with the artists. All are welcome. A $10 donation is requested. However, con- tributions of any amount to the Temple Israel music program will be gratefully received. This concert is sponsored by Temple Israel member Richard Schnaittacher in honor of his father, Fred Schnaittacher, and in honor of the America-Israel Cul- tural Foundation, which supports artistic life in Israel. This will be the launching point for AICF’s 75 th Anniversary in the US. Since 1939, AICF has played a lead- ing role in helping develop and fund many of Israel’s largest cultural institu- tions. Most of Israel’s finest artists have received assistance from AICF. Among those supported have been Itzhak Perl- man, Menashe Kadishman, Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, Yefim Bron- fman, the Israel Philharmonic Orches- tra, the Israel Museum, and the Batsheva Dance Company. Shmuel Katz serves as principal violist with the Mostly Mozart festival orchestra and with the Pennsylvania Ballet. He is a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and the Orches- tra of Saint Luke’s and plays regularly with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has appeared as concertmaster and soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and has toured with the orchestra in Europe, Asia, and North America. Katz has recorded for EMI, Deutche Grammophon, and Ondine, and with The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. His studio work in New York includes albums of Sting, Bruce Springsteen, and Lou Reed, and nearly 20 movie soundtracks He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied violin and viola with Pinchas Zukerman and Michael Tree. Before leaving for New York, he studied in Israel with Haim Taub, Ora Shiran, and Yair Kless. He also performed in master classes given by Dorothy DeLay, Josef Gingold, Joseph Silverstein, and Alexan- der Schneider. Polonsky has appeared with the Moscow Virtuosi, the Buffalo Phil- harmonic, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Saint Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and many others. She has collaborated with the Guarneri, Orion, and Shanghai Quar- tets, and with such musicians as Mitsuko Uchida, David Shifrin, Richard Goode, Jaime Laredo, Ida and Ani Kavafian, and Arnold Steinhardt. She is regularly invited to perform chamber music at fes- tivals such as Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle, Music@Menlo, Cart- agena (Colombia), and Bard. Polonsky has given concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzer- thaus, Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall’s Stern, Weill, and Zankel Halls. She and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Polonsky received her bachelor of music diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked with the renowned pianist Peter Serkin, and continued her studies with Jerome Lowenthal, earning her mas- ter’s degree from the Juilliard School. She was a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2003, and of the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 2011. First prize winner of the 2013 Ima Hogg Competition, clarinetist Moran Katz also received the Audience Choice Prize and the Artistic Encouragement Prize by the Houston Symphony musi- cians. She has appeared as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, China Philharmonic, SWR sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg, Collegium Musicum Basel, Houston Symphony, Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale, Albany Symphony, Brooklyn Philhar- monic, Ensemble ACJW, New Juilliard Ensemble, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, (continued on page 9) Moran Katz