Michael Katz
Hailed by the press for his “bold, rich sound” (Strad Magazine) and “nuanced musicianship” (The New York Times), Grammy-nominated cellist Michael Katz has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Israel. He has performed in major venues including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, the Kravis Center, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Oji Hall (Tokyo), Philips Hall (Eindhoven), Teatro Cervantes (Málaga), the Lucerne KKL, and Henry Crown Auditorium (Jerusalem).
A member of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2025, Mr. Katz has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, DuPage Symphony Orchestra, New York Classical Players, The Juilliard Orchestra, the Orchestre du Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris, Greenwich Village Orchestra, Ensemble 212, and the Doctors’ Orchestral Society of New York, among others. His artistry has been recognized with numerous honors, including all three prizes at the 2011 Aviv Competition, first prizes at the 2010 Juilliard School Concerto Competition and the 2005 Turjeman Competition, as well as awards from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Ronen Foundation.
Highly sought after as a chamber musician, Mr. Katz has collaborated with artists including Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Cho-Liang Lin, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Isabel Leonard, Donald Weilerstein, Daniel Phillips, Peter Wiley, Anthony Marwood, Peter Frankl, Charles Neidich, Lucie Robert, Alexander Schimpf, Lucy Shelton, and Roger Tapping. He has appeared at international festivals such as Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Mostly Mozart, Festival Mozaic, Yellow Barn, Lucerne Festival, Bard Music Festival, Holland Music Sessions, Sarasota Music Festival, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Classical Bridge, Cooperstown Music Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, Green Box Arts Festival, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Málaga Clásica, Skaneateles Festival, the Perlman Music Program, Orford Music Academy, and Kol Hamusica.
From 2010 to 2025, Mr. Katz was the cellist of the Lysander Piano Trio, winners of the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition and first-prize recipients at the 2011 Coleman Competition and the 2011 J.C. Arriaga Competition. With the trio, he performed across 39 U.S. states as well as Canada, Mexico, Denmark, and Israel. The trio’s debut album, After a Dream (CAG Records, 2014), was praised by The New York Times for its “polished and spirited interpretations.” Their second album, Mirrors (First Hand Records, 2021), featuring six world-premiere recordings of commissioned works, received widespread critical acclaim.
Deeply committed to education and community engagement, Mr. Katz was a Fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect from 2014 to 2016 and has been a core member of Decoda, Carnegie Hall’s affiliate ensemble, since 2019. He was selected to participate in Midori’s International Community Engagement Program, performing outreach and formal concerts in Myanmar and Japan (2013–2014), and was invited to return for projects in Nepal and Japan (2016–2017). Mr. Katz has previously served as an adjunct cello professor at Nyack College and has held faculty positions at the Csehy Summer School of Music and the Chamber Music Institute of Stamford, Connecticut.
Passionate about expanding the cello and chamber music repertoire, Mr. Katz has premiered works by more than 50 composers, including Samuel Adler, Timo Andres, Ofer Ben-Amots, Christopher Cerone, Jakub Ciupiński, Ann Cleare, Gilad Cohen, Bryce Dessner, Mohammed Fairouz, Daniel Felsenfeld, Vivian Fung, Him Sophy, Vijay Iyer, Juan Pablo Jofre, David T. Little, Zhou Long, Eric Moe, Reinaldo Moya, Sergiu Natra, Olga Neuwirth, Jonathan Newman, Malcolm Payton, Paola Prestini, Chris Rogerson, Huang Ruo, Caroline Shaw, Benedict Sheehan, Sang Song, Zhou Tian, Julian Wachner, and Yehudi Wyner.
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Mr. Katz began his cello studies at age seven. His early teachers included Zvi Plesser, Hillel Zori, and the late Mikhail Khomitzer. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser; his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School as a student of Joel Krosnick; and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, where he studied with Colin Carr.
