About the festival

“A Pearl of Escapist Delight” (Yon Feder, Ynet, 2023)

The Eilat International Chamber Music Festival has returned to the stage this year, marking the comeback of one of Israel’s most significant and moving cultural events. Since 2005, the festival has served as a home for top-tier chamber music, cross-cultural collaborations, and a unique cultural experience amid the landscapes of the Red Sea.
This is one of the leading international festivals held in Israel. The festival repeatedly enjoys immense success, receiving enthusiastic praise and acclaim across the globe. The Eilat Festival attracts large audiences from all over Israel and the world, people who delight in combining a luxurious vacation in Eilat with concerts and performances by first-class musicians from Israel and abroad. Today, it is recognized by audiences and critics alike as Israel’s flagship classical music festival.

This year’s edition, held for the first time in collaboration with the Astral Hotels chain, will feature 15 concerts over four days—chamber concerts with top soloists from Israel and abroad, large-scale orchestral and choral works, contemporary flamenco, jazz, swing, surprising fusions, and more.
Among this year’s participants:
The Georgian State Choir, the international orchestra iPalpiti, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, violinist Polina Osetinskaya, cellist Alexander Rudin, violinist David Grimal, bassoonist Eyal Streett, who will join his brother, popular artist Shaanan Streett, and an ensemble of players of historical brass, winds and string players from Spain and Italy to present intriguing and unexpected programs. Also performing are jazz pianist Omri Mor, vocalists Shira Patchornik and Sarah Gouzi, and many others.
This year, musicians from Germany, France, Lithuania, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, Georgia, Canada, Ecuador, Russia, and the U.S. will come to Eilat to perform alongside

outstanding Israeli musicians.
The festival will also connect with the current situation in Israel, holding concerts in memory of the fallen, in support of the hostages, and alongside them, performances carrying messages of hope, resilience, and renewal—including Mozart’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, powerful contemporary repertoire, and surprising encounters between classical music and the worlds of jazz, flamenco, and hip-hop.
A First-of-Its-Kind International Competition in Israel
For the first time in its history, the festival will include an international competition for young musicians in the fields of violin, cello, and piano. The competition stages will take place in Eilat just before the festival’s opening, and the opening concert (November 19) will be dedicated entirely to the competition winners - with an award ceremony and festive concert

featuring their performances.
First-Ever Collaboration with Astral Hotels Chain
This year marks the festival’s first collaboration with the Astral Hotels chain, which will provide the festival with its state-of-the-art performance venue, the Astral Terminal, as well as the concert halls of the Astral Luxury’s Queen of Sheba Hotel. The chain will also offer diverse accommodation options for festival guests in its Eilat hotels.

Leonid Rosenberg

Founder and Festival Director

“I am prouder than ever to present our festival, which brings to Israel’s southernmost corner a series of top-tier musical performances - brilliant and inspiring. Over 100 musicians from 15 different countries have chosen to come, here and now - to share with us the language of music, the universal language of hope and compassion.

At the Eilat International Chamber Music Festival, we will experience 15 moving concerts performed by leading artists, who bring us the masterpieces of the classical repertoire with open hearts and loving souls.

And among the grand sounds, the next generation will play their dreams: young pianists, violinists, and cellists aged 8–18 will take the stage in an international competition for young musicians. They will compete for valuable prizes but, more than anything, will meet an audience that understands, hears, and truly listens.”

Leonid Rosenberg, violinist and conductor, has directed the Red Sea Music Conservatory since 1998, greatly contributing to the growth of music education in Eilat. In 2005, he founded the Eilat Chamber Music Festival and continues to serve as its General and Artistic Director.

Born in the Soviet Union, Rosenberg immigrated to Israel in 1977. As a violinist and conductor, he has performed in the USSR, Germany, Holand, Switzerland, the U.S., and Israel. He served for 12 years as Artistic Director of the Ganei Tikva Municipal Conservatory and from 1993–2004 was a faculty member at the Idyllwild Arts Festival in California, U.S.A. He has also judged international violin competitions.

He founded the Eilat Chamber Music Festival in 2006 and has served as its musical and general director ever since.