# Silver–Garburg Piano Duo

The Silver–Garburg Piano Duo is a musical duo consisting of Israeli pianists Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg, known for its performances of classical and contemporary music, as well as original transcriptions and arrangements of works for piano four-hands and two pianos.

## Biographies

Sivan Silver (born 1976) graduated with honors from the music department at the Thelma Yellin School of the Arts, and belonged to the Young Musicians Unit of the Jerusalem Music Centre. She studied piano with Rina Weiss, Neima Rosh, Yahli Wagman and Arie Vardi, and theory and composition with Sergiu Natra and Yitzhak Sadai, at the Rubin Academy at Tel Aviv University (renamed Buchmann-Mehta School of Music), and at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. Silver is the first prize winner in the Ben-Haim Competition (1993), in the Adriana Katz Competition at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music (1994), in the Clermont Competition (1996), in the Viotti-Valsesia International Competition, Italy (1997), in the YMFE competition, Germany (1999), and in the International Piano-Fabia Competition, Italy (1999).
Gil Garburg (born 1975) studied at the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv, with Hava Armonn and at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, and graduated with honors. He has regularly won scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. He also studied composition with Professor Sergio Natra. Since 1993 he has been a student of Arie Vardi, first at the Rubin Academy at Tel Aviv University, and then at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. He won first prize in the spring competitions of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (1996), and the second prize in the international competition named after Porino in Italy. He won third prize in the international competition in memory of Shostakovich in Germany (1997). He won first prize in IBLA International Competition (1998), and first prize at the Brahms International Competition in Hamburg (1999).
The pair founded the duo in 1997 while studying in Hanover, Germany. In 1998 they won first prize as a duo in the IBLA International Competition

## Musical career

The duo has performed in a variety of well-known halls, such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Vienna Musikverein, the Großes Festspielhaus of Salzburg Festival the Sydney Opera House, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Berliner Philharmonie. Since its inception, the duo has performed in nearly 70 countries on five continents.
Silver–Garburg regularly collaborates with renowned orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Lucerne Symphony, the Belgian National Symphony Orchestra, the North German Radio Orchestra, the Prague Symphony, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Symphony and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

## Discography

The Silver-Garburg Piano Duo's recordings have been released under the labels Berlin Classics, ABC Classics, Oehms Classics and JMC.
* "Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto after Op. 25/Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56b", With the Vienna Symphony and Florian Krumpöck (including a world-premiere recording of the Johannes Brahms/Richard Dünser - Concerto in G minor for piano, four hands and string orchestra Berlin Classics)
* "Illumination", Works for two pianos by Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Camille Saint-Saëns Berlin Classics
* "Igor Stravinsky: Petrouchka/Le Sacre du Printemps", Audio-CD and Vinyl record, Berlin Classics
* "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto No. 10 for two pianos, KV 365" With the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Mickelthwate, ABC Classics
* "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto No. 7 for two pianos, KV 242", With the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Mickelthwate, ABC Classics
* "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: A Midsummer Night's Dream/Songs without Words", Oehms Classics
* "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Concertos for Two Pianos and Orchestra", With the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie and Christopher Hogwood, Oehms Classics
* "Jugend Kulturell zu Gast beim NDR", Works by Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Borodin and Johannes Brahms (NDR Kultur Klassik Club)
* "Piano Duo Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg", Works by Mozart, Schubert, Debussy and Natra (including a world-premiere recording of Sergiu Natra's "Harmonic Sound Image for Sivan and Gil" for Two Pianos) JMC
* "Schubert - Klavierwerke zu vier Händen", 2 CDs, Berlin Classics 2024

## Personal life

The couple were born and raised in Israel. They currently live in Berlin with their son, and are both professors for piano duo studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.