Michael Tsalka () is a Dutch-Israeli

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and early keyboard performer. He performs solo and chamber music from the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

to the

Contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

periods on the modern

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

fortepiano A fortepiano is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1700 up to the early 19th century. Most typically, however, it is used to ref ...

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance music, Renaissance, Baroque music, Baroque and Classical period (music), Classical eras. Historically, it was most ...

square piano The square piano is a type of piano that has horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side, with the sounding board above a cavity in the short side. It is variousl ...

and

positive organ A positive organ (also positiv organ, positif organ, portable organ, chair organ, or simply positive, positiv, positif, or chair) (from the Latin verb ''ponere'', "to place") is a small, usually one-manual, pipe organ that is built to be more o ...

. Michael Tsalka, who is the oldest son of Israeli writer Dan Tsalka, performs throughout Europe, the U.S., Canada, Asia, and Latin America. Recent engagements include the Boston Early Music Festival, the Gasteig in Münich, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the Bellas Artes Theater in Mexico City, the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, the Hermitage Festival in St. Petersburg, and full programs and interviews for radio stations in Hong Kong, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Chicago, Berlin, Auckland, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Jerusalem.

Career

Michael Tsalka graduated in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in piano performance from the Rubin Academy of Music at the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

. He then continued studying in Germany and Italy. In 2001, he received a piano solo diploma from the Scuola Superiore Internazionale del Trio di Trieste, where he studied with pianist Dario so Rosa. From 2002 to 2008, he resided in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and studied at the Esther Boyer College of Music of

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

with pianists Lambert Orkis, Harvey Wedeen, and harpsichordist Joyce Lindorff. Tsalka holds three degrees from that institution: a master's degree in chamber music/accompanying, a master's degree in harpsichord performance and a doctorate in piano performance. Other mentors included Darío di Rosa, Malcolm Bilson, David Shemer, Charles Rosen and Sandra Mangsen. From 2009 to 2011, Tsalka was a professor of harpsichord and chamber music at the Escuela Superior de Musica (CONACULTA / INBA). From 2011 to 2014 he taught at Musikskolan Lilla Akademien in Stockholm. Currently he is visiting professor at the School of Music of the University of Auckland. In addition, Dr. Michael Tsalka has presented over 160 master classes in academic institutions in all continents. From 2019-2024, he headed the keyboard Department at the Vanke Meisha Arts Academy (VMAA) in Shenzhen, China. He is also Artist in Residence at the Nelson Center for Musical Arts in New Zealand (2020, 2024). Since 2022, he is a Prof. at CUHK-SZ, China. Michael Tsalka has released thirty-seven CDs for labels such as NAXOS, Grand Piano (Hong Kong), Paladino (Vienna), Brilliant Classics (Amsterdam), IMI (Tel-Aviv), Wirripang (Australia), Sheva Collection (London/Milano), and Ljud & Bild (Stockholm). Current and future recording projects include CDs dedicated to keyboard works by J. S. Bach, Daniel Gottlob Türk, Johann Baptist Wanhal, Carl Dittersdorf, W.A. Mozart, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, F. Chopin, Viktor Ullmann, Leonardo Coral, Paul Ben-Haim and Yehezkel Braun. His CDs have received excellent reviews and the attention of respected critics. In 2013 his recording of the Goldberg Variations on two clavichords was chosen as one of eight CDs of the year by MusicWeb International. More than fifty composers have dedicated works for Tsalka, which he premiered. Tsalka was the Artistic director of festivals in Mainland China, Sweden, Spain, Finland, and the Netherlands. He was the co artistic director of the Nordic Historical Keyboard Festival (2012-2015). 2014-2019, he was the artistic director of the annual Geelvinck International Fortepiano Festival. Tsalka's students have been accepted in prestigious imstituitions, including the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the HDK in Berlin, Grieg Academy in Norway, and the

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, named afte ...

. Several of his students have recently won first prizes at International Piano competitions, for example, the International Mozart Competition in Shenzhen, and the Kingsburg International Piano Competition in Qingdao.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsalka, Michael Israeli musicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people)