Sharon Cohen, member of the First Violin section of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, has been a long time member of the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, directed by Daniel Barenboim, where she leads the second violin section.

Her work with the WEDO has also included chamber music appearances at prestigious international festivals, including Salzburg, the BBC Proms and Rolandsek in Germany. She also represents the IPO in chamber concerts in Tel Aviv and around the world.

A founding member of A Far Cry, a leading chamber orchestra in the USA, she also spearheaded its education team. Her recordings include four albums with A Far Cry along with a solo appearance on its first album Debut, and many recordings with the West Eastern Divan Orchestra.

She completed her master’s degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston and her undergraduate studies at The Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. This is her first appearance as soloist with the IPO.

Watch an interview with Sharon <a href="http://members.ipo.co.il/en/interviews/36"><strong>here</strong></a>

Ilya Konovalov was born to a musical family in Novosibirsk (USSR) in 1977. At the age of 7 he commenced his studies with Prof. Zakhar Bron and later with Prof. Alexey Gvozdev in Novosibirsk. During this time he was a prize winner in the All-Russian and Wieniawski International Violin Competition. He later studied with Prof. Dora Schwarzberg at the Vienna Academy of Music.

Ilya has perfomed all over Russia and Europe and in Brazil, Indonesia,Korea and Japan. He has appeared with prestigious orchestras such as the "Moscow Virtuosi", the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra,the Israel Sinfonieta Beer-Sheva, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra "Musica Viva" , the Saint Petersburg State Capella Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow State Symphony, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, the American-Russian Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductors such as Vladimir Spivakov, Hugh Wolf, Zubin Mehta and Yoel Levi. He played chamber music with many prominent artists, among them Alexnder Rudin, Yuri Bashmet, Rudolf Buchbinder, Lynn Harell , Arkady Zenziper, Dora Schwarzberg, Steven Isserlis, Misha Maisky etc.

For the past 10 years he has been participating many prestigious festivals such as: "Young Artists in Concert", Festival in Davos Switzerland, "Schubertiaden" Music Festival in Germany, Haifa Music Festival and " Dreiklang" Festival in Gemany. Ilya Konovalov has recorded two CD’s for Melodiya label in Russia and the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra under Arnold Katz. Since 1997 he has been Concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta.

Ilya Konovalov is the 1st violinist of the Israel Philharmonic String Quartet  wich was found in 2006 by the the request of Maestro Mehta and supported by the Richter family.

Since 2006 Ilya Konovalov teaching violin and chamber music at the Buchmann – Mehta School of Music at the Tel Aviv University.

Polina Kozhevnikov joined the IPO in 2007, and within one year won a position in the first violin section.  Polina was born in Moscow, began playing violin at the age of 6 and studied at the Gnessin School for Talented Children with Valentina Korolkova.  When she was 15, her family immigrated to Salt Lake City, in the United States and later settled in Oklahoma.  Although she is from a long line of physicists on both her father’s and her mother’s side, she is the first musician in the family.

Polina completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the Indiana University with professors Nelli Shkolnikova and Miriam Fried.  Her string quartet won the Kuttner Quartet competition in 2001. She continued her Master’s studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with William Preucil, the Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Polina participated in the Verbier Festival, Aspen Festival, the Boulder Music Festival, Sarasota Chamber Music Festival, and was concertmaster of the orchestras of the Spoleto Music Festival and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestral Institute in Attergau.

While being on tour in Israel Polina was fascinated by the country and decided to audition for the IPO. The audition firmly established Polina’s place among the orchestra’s young and ambitious next generation players.