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Israeli soprano Nofar Yacobi is set to grace the stage of New York City’s Carnegie Hall on May 30, 2025, as the featured soloist in Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.
The performance will mark the closing concert of the Chamber Orchestra of New York’s 2024-2025 season and celebrate Yacobi as this year’s recipient of the prestigious Ottorino Respighi Prize.
Yacobi, a rising star of the Israeli Opera, said the upcoming performance brings her full circle with her recent role in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in Tel Aviv.
“Both works are sung in German and were written in similar periods,” she said. “The sense of performing music from a certain place inspires a lot of passion and emotion for me—and it’s something I get to share with the audience.”
Winning the Respighi Prize came as a welcome surprise. “I sent my application and didn’t hear back,” Yacobi recalled. “I thought, ‘Okay, they’re playing with me.’ And then I got an email that they wanted to speak to me. It was such a good surprise.”
Now in her thirties, Yacobi is part of a new generation of opera performers who are embracing both tradition and digital platforms.
On Instagram, she shares clips from her performances, favorite arias, and behind-the-scenes moments with her growing fanbase. “I just like to create things, to share things with the world, to give and to receive—it’s reciprocal,” she said.
Yacobi’s career has been shaped by her willingness to take creative risks. A decade ago, she went viral after posting a tongue-in-cheek operatic parody titled Queen of Chocolate, inspired by an Israir flight.
During the pandemic, she spearheaded a massive online project titled “Musical Solidarity,” uniting 500 musicians from 65 opera houses to perform Verdi’s Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, a symbol of resilience and unity.
Raised in Kiryat Ono, just outside Tel Aviv, Yacobi began studying piano at a young age and later expanded her musical talents to multiple instruments.
Her journey into opera began unexpectedly at age 12, when her piano teacher encouraged her to join a choir. “I heard that first piece and it was something magical,” she said.
Opera was already in her blood. Her Italian-born mother frequently played recordings by legendary soprano Maria Callas, often waking the family to the sound of Tosca. “I realized I already knew the music—it was a part of me,” Yacobi recalled.
A graduate of the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, Yacobi quickly rose through the ranks after being selected as a soloist with the Israeli Opera.
Since then, she has performed across the globe, including in the last 19 months following the October 7 Hamas attack, a time when many Israeli artists faced cancellations abroad.
“I haven’t encountered any anti-Israel sentiment,” she said. “The ongoing war and the hostages are always on my mind—it’s an open wound. But I can’t let it stop me.”
With her voice poised to fill one of the world’s most revered concert halls, Yacobi continues to represent the power of art to transcend borders, grief, and politics—one note at a time.