9/10/2009


My mother was in the choir of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the very first concert of the Israel Philharmonic with Arturo Toscanini.
- Naomi Enoch

This month’s AFIPO musician’s interview proudly highlights IPO Cellist Naomi Enoch.

I have a unique connection to the Israel Philharmonic…my mother was in the choir of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the very first concert of the Israel Philharmonic (originally named the Palestine Orchestra) with Arturo Toscanini; and, my father was a police officer who accompanied the IPO as security on their concerts around the country. When the Orchestra was celebrating the IPO’s 70th Anniversary, you can imagine my excitement to discover a photograph of my father in uniform with the famous conductor and the legendary IPO concertmaster Zvi Haftel in the beautiful program for the celebration. No one knew it was my father and I had never seen that picture before.

I am a "Sabra" with interesting roots, my father Canadian and mother Hungarian. My mother, who was passionate about music, took my twin sister and me to a classical concert when we were very young and let us choose an instrument. My sister chose the piano and I the cello. My first cello teacher was the son of Golda Meir (the prime minister of Israel in 1969), so you can imagine the excitement this brought to my extended family in Canada and the United States.

I have been with the Orchestra for 32 years. Playing with this Orchestra is a real privilege and I feel it at almost every concert. As this is a Jewish orchestra, we have 100 “opinions” about everything. Discipline is our weakest side, but as far as our musical temperament goes, we have no competition. When we tour, I have to say that I feel so at home in the United States that it is almost like playing in Israel. It is, however, very different when we play in other countries.

I must confess that, unfortunately, one of my faults is that I am a very absent-minded person. I have been known to forget my cello in different halls. After a concert in Eilat, while sitting on the plane ready to go home, we saw Asher running to the plane with a cello in his hand shouting: “Who's is this?” I also travel to a lot of IPO concerts out of Tel Aviv. On our first Chazanut concert, I forgot it started at 8:00PM. The IPO Personnel Manager announced it at least “ten” times and I was still late. At a point in the concert, where a choir of a few "Yeshiva "guys went on stage, I was smuggled in. People told me later that we looked like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

One of the things that is truly interesting when performing is realizing the effect an audience has on the orchestra as a whole and as individual musicians. Many years ago I was to play a chamber music concert in the north city of Karmiel. The weather was horrific and we where trying very hard to cancel it. Unwillingly, our small group of IPO musicians got there only to discover that the concert was moved to a smaller hall because of the poor attendance. As we started the concert there was such a fantastic feeling from the audience that we gave the best concert of our lives. In spite of the difficult journey, we were extremely happy and the audience was ecstatic.