Chief conductor and artistic advisor of The Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Yoel Levi is known throughout the world for his work at the head of many prestigious orchestras, his repertoire of symphonic and operatic works and his extensive discography. Having won first prize at the International Conductors Competition in Besançon in 1978, he spent six years as Lorin Maazel’s assistant and resident conductor at the Cleveland Orchestra and went on to be Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony (1988-2000). He was also Principal Conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic (2001-07), Principal Conductor of the Orchestre National d’Ile de France (2005-12) and Music Director of the KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) Symphony (2014-19). When he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, he led the IPO on a US tour in 2004, and on a festive tour celebrating the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in Mexico in 2008. His conducting engagements include appearances with orchestras in London, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Rome, Frankfurt, Munich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Israel, Korea and Japan. In North America, he has conducted the New York Philharmonic and the orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Washington, Minnesota, Toronto and Montreal among others. Yoel Levi is frequently invited to conduct at special events such as the Nobel Prize Ceremony at the head of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Since his opera debut in 1997 at the Teatro Communale in Florence, Italy, he has also conducted operas at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Prague, Paris, Rotterdam, the Atlanta Opera and the Puccini Festival in Torre de Lago. Yoel Levi has made more than forty recordings on different labels with various orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic. More than thirty of these are with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree by Oglethorpe University in Atlanta (1997) and was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2001). In 2017, KBS Symphony Orchestra and Yoel Levi were awarded the grand prize from the fourth Seoul Arts Center awards. Born in Romania, Yoel Levi grew up in Israel. He studied at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, where he received a Master of Arts degree with distinction, and at the Jerusalem Academy of Music under Prof. Mendi Rodan. He also studied with Franco Ferrara in Italy, Kiril Kondrashin in Holland, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.