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Janna Gandelman was born in Kishinev (Moldova) where she began her violin studies at age of five. At a very young age she had already won a number of competitions in Russia, such as the National Violin Competition, the Stolyarsky School Competition, the International Competition of the USSR and the Auer Moldova Competition.
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After her immigration to Israel in 1979, she maintained an active solo and chamber music concert life as a member of the Programs for excelling young musicians at the Jerusalem Music Center in “Mishkenot Sha’ananim”. In 1984-1989, while Gandelman studied at Tel the Aviv Music Academy, she had won several prizes at important Israeli violin competitions such as the “Clermount” and “Shapiro” competitions. She was a laureate of “Lipitzer” competition in Italy (1992) and had received the second prize at the Atlanta competition in the USA (1994).
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Since 1993 Gandelman serves as principle violinist of Israel’s leading ensembles, including Musica Nova, the 21st Century Music Ensemble, the Caprizma Ensemble and the Rishon le-Zion Soloists Quartet. She performed as a soloist with most orchestras in Israel, including the Israeli Opera Orchestra, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Be’ersheva Simonette, the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra and Israeli Camerata Jerusalem. She has played under conductors such as Mendi Rodan, Noam Sheriff, Gary Bertini, Avner Biron, Asher Fish, Doron Solomon and others.
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In 1996 she played as guest leader in the Flemish Chamber Orchestra. In 1997-1998 Gandelman served as concertmaster of the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra and between 1998-2001 she had led the Stage Orchestra of Israel. In 2001 Gandelman became the concertmaster of the Israeli Camerata Jerusalem. Since 2009 she has been serving as the concertmaster at the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, IBA, as well as first violin in the Sapphire String Quartet, (alongside Roman Spitzer, Amos Boasson and Oleg Stolpner) – an ensemble dedicated to performing and recording music from Purcell to contemporary music.
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Gandelman performed in chamber music concerts with renowned musicians such as Isaac Stern, Gideon Kremer, Eliso Virsaladze and Asher Fisch. She regularly takes part in international festivals such as the Red Sea Festival, the Abu Gosh Festival, the Israel Festival, the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and many others.