Simca Heled

Israeli American- Simca Heled is a graduate of the Tel-Aviv Academy of Music. At the age of 24 he was appointed by Zubin Mehta to the position of Principal Cellist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.  He appeared many times as a soloist with that orchestra in Israel and on tours, and recorded a number of concertos with them.  Heled's worldwide solo career started immediately after leaving the orchestra. He is also an acclaimed recitalist and chamber musician - and was a member (together with Jonathan Zak and Uri Pianka) of the well-known Yuval Trio for 26 years.
Simca Heled performed in most of the leading musical centers in Europe, North and South America, Australia etc. He was soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the RAI and Jerusalem symphonies, the Pittsburgh and Baltimore Symphonies, the Lamoureux Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Frankfurt and Saarbrücken radio orchestras to mention a few. He has appeared as soloist with distinguished conductors like Blomstedt, Comissiona, Dorati, Inbal, Maazel, and Mehta among others.  Simca Heled has been lecturing and giving Master-classes in many prestigious institutions in the U.S, Europe, Australia and South Africa and is a frequent visitor to the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv music academies and universities.  Simca Heled has won further praise since his emergence as an active and talented conductor. His career as conductor has won him critical and audience acclaim. He has collaborated with Yoel Levi of the Atlanta Symphony and worked with George Mester of the Juilliard School of Music in New York.  After conducting the Jerusalem Symphony in 1989, Simca Heled was immediately re-invited as guest conductor, and has conducted and recorded with that orchestra many times since. Some other orchestras Maestro Heled conducted are the Westfield Symphony of New Jersey, the Virginia Symphony, the San-Antonio Symphony of Texas, the St. Luke's Orchestra of New York, the Jerusalem Cameratta, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, The Haifa Symphony, the Israel Sinfonietta, the Wroclaw and Bialystok Philharmonics and the Opera Nova of Poland.  In 1994 Mr. Heled was nominated to the position of Chief Conductor of the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Poland, and later on established, for a brief period, the Polish National Chamber Orchestra which was made of the best talent in Poland.  Simca Heled was for many years the Artistic Director of Concerts Plus, a New York concert series praised for its innovative programming that was regularly broadcast on WQXR radio.  Mr. Heled was the Music Advisor to the Instituto Tecnologico of Monterrey (Mexico), the SAT in Chihuahua and the University of Mexicali.  Simca Heled recorded extensively (close to 100 titles) for DGG, CBS, Connoisseur-Society, In-Sync, Isradisc, MMG-VOX, IMI, Centaur, Relief, and Classico of Denmark.