Sagi Hartov

Israeli-born cellist Sagi Hartov came to the UK in September 2000 to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Mats Lidstrom. He graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction and was also awarded an LRAM teaching qualification. Sagi commenced his cello studies at the age of ten. At the age of fifteen he performed with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra and in 1996 was elected to the 'Outstanding Musician' programme as a member of the Israeli Forces String Quartet.

He has won several major awards from the Royal Academy of Music, Ferdinand Beck Fund, American-Israel Foundation, Muriel Taylor National Competition for Cello and many others and while at the Academy, represented the String Department in the Finals of the prestigious RAM Club Prize, where he achieved a Distinction and opened the new David Josefowitz Recital Hall. He was also a finalist of the Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 2001. Past performances include concerts at Wigmore Hall in a solo recital with Benjamin Frith, Regent Hall Festival with Alberto Portugheis, Broomhill Festival, Gent Festival (Belgium) and the opening of a new recital hall in the Israeli Museum (Jerusalem) as well as the opening of The Tent of Peace in front of HRH the Prince of Wales. He has recorded for BBC Radio 4, BBC Channel 1, Universal Records and performed at St. Martin'sin- the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, and many other prestigious venues in the UK, Israel, Belgium, Germany and Australia. His outstanding talent has been rewarded by lifetime loans of both a Maucotel 1849 cello from a benefactor, as well as a Silvestre et Maucotel, (Paris 1912), by a group of donors and he currently also plays a Guarneri 1720 - also given on loan from an anonymous donor.

Sagi is currently directing Spiro Ark's Tzavta Department and is the Founder and Chairman of the very successful Israeli International Music Competition and Bloch Music Competition.