Elad Navon – ARD INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION

Clarinet

Israeli clarinetist Elad Navon was born in Jerusalem in 2000 and is currently completing his artistic diploma at the renowned Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. There he studies in the class of Prof. Yehuda Gilad. At the age of 9, he studied with Ilya Schwartz at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He completed his bachelor’s degree with honors at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in the class of Tibi Cziger. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, also with Prof. Yehuda Gilad.

Navon was awarded second prize in the Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition in 2024. In the same year, he received first prize for the outstanding interpretation of an Israeli work at the Aviv Competitions and first prize at the Kfar Saba Winds Competition in 2022. Since 2017, he has been supported by scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

As an orchestral musician, Elad Navon has performed with major Israeli orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the San Diego Symphony, the American Youth Symphony, and the Colburn Orchestra. This has given him the opportunity to play under the baton of internationally renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Lahav Shani, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Vasily Petrenko. Elad Navon has also participated in masterclasses with renowned artists such as François Benda, Sharon Kam, Martin Fröst, and many others.

At the 74th ARD International Music Competition, Elad Navon won the first prize, the audience prize, as well as the special prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned composition in the clarinet category.