About Yaniv
Attar is the Music Director of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra, and Artistic Partner with Northwest Sinfonietta.
Highlights of past seasons include collaborations with artists such as Alessio Bax, James Ehnes, Tine Thing Helseth, Sharon Isbin, Alex Klein, Jennifer Koh, Johannes Moser, Jon Kimura Parker, Joshua Roman, Gil Shaham, and Yo-Yo Ma. Prior to his current music directorships, Attar served eight seasons as Music Director of the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra and completed a residency as Assistant Conductor of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, where he conducted nearly 100 performances and worked extensively with Music Director Justin Brown.
Attar was also one of ten conductors worldwide invited to participate in INTERACTION, conducting an orchestra composed of members from Germany’s leading ensembles, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
Drawn to orchestral conducting from an early age, Attar studied with Israel Edelson in Jerusalem, Virginia Allen at the Juilliard School in New York, and Neil Thomson at the Royal College of Music in London, where he served as Associate Conductor and co-founded the Tempus Chamber Orchestra.
In 2008, he earned his Doctor of Music degree from McGill University, studying under Alexis Hauser. He has also worked with distinguished mentors including Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, János Fürst, Jorma Panula, Gustav Meier, Johannes Schlaefli, Peter Gülke, Gábor Hollerung, Neil Varon, Carl St. Clair, David Effron, Donald Thulean, and Michael Jurowski.
Attar has appeared with orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Duna Szimfonikus Budapest, Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Haifa Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, Israel Chamber Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali (Milan), Jerusalem Symphony, Lithuanian State Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra (USA), National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Northwest Sinfonietta, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Ruse Philharmonic, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Virginia Symphony, and others.
Attar is also an accomplished classical guitarist.
He has studied under Irit Even-Tov, Charles Ramirez and Sharon Isbin, for whom he served as teaching assistant at the Aspen Music Festival from 2003 to 2005. Attar was the first guitarist to win the Aviv Competition Prize in Israel and the Concerto Competition at the Juilliard School. Attar plays a 2022 Martin Blackwell Guitar. His studies have been generously supported by the America and Canada Israel Cultural Foundations, The Williamson Foundation for Music, Ronen Foundation, The Olga Forrai Foundation New York, the Morris and Beverly Baker Foundation, AVI Fellowships Switzerland, the Rislov Foundation, and the ISEF Foundation.
"To say the least, the performance was fiery and fantastic, electric, and exciting."
