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Session Report: Violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley on recording his Fidl-Fantazye klezmer concerto

2026-09-18T08:46:00

Session report (1)

Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, speaks to Harry White about recording his self-penned klezmer concerto Fidl-Fantazye live on the Philharmonie stage

In 1900, a young violinist named Samuel Leventhal, lately returned from studies in Germany, took his place within the violin section of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. A little over a century later, in 2011, his great-grandson and namesake, the violinist Noah Samuel Bendix-Balgley, joined that same orchestra and, in 2016, stood before it to give the premiere of his self-penned concerto, the klezmer-inspired Fidl‑Fantazye…

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