Yoav Levanon

Born on March 3, 2004, in Ramat Ha-Sharon, Israel, Yoav Levanon encountered a piano at home as a toddler and immediately became captivated by its tone, prompting formal instruction at age three. A public debut followed at four, and by seven he was already appearing abroad, including a Carnegie Hall recital and a solo turn with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Further travels by eleven took him across Israel, Russia, and multiple European venues such as Naples’s Teatro San Carlo. At thirteen he tackled Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, alongside the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Early in 2020 he joined Martha Argerich at Germany’s Piano Summit and shortly afterward joined the Warner Classics roster. His first release for the label, the 2021 album A Monument to Beethoven, surveyed composers—including Liszt—who had helped fund the Bonn memorial to Beethoven.

Harrison Parrott represents the pianist, whose schedule has kept him in steady demand. A 2021 film project with Daniel Barenboim led to joint appearances across France, Lithuania, Germany, and Switzerland, among them a Paris recital at Radio France and a Geneva performance with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Levanon cites Sergei Babayan, András Schiff, and Murray Perahia among his guiding influences and participated in a master class given by the last of these in Jerusalem. A 2023 program devoted to Ignace Paderewski took him to the KKL Luzern. Widely viewed as a leading young interpreter of technically demanding repertory, he has already issued several prize-winning Liszt recordings while still a teenager and has performed on multiple continents before reaching adulthood. In 2024 Warner Classics issued his account of Liszt’s two piano concertos, recorded with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, coupled with the demanding Totentanz.