"Although Ram [...] presents himself as deliberately casual in his shiny silver sneakers, his conducting is the opposite: energetic, spontaneous, yet clear, precise, and attentive to detail.”(Leipziger Volkszeitung)
Israeli-American conductor Ilya Ram, praised for his charismatic and energetic performance by Crescendo-Magazine and his “expressive spontaneity” (Diaposon), is internationally sought-after for his creative new approach to classical music.
Prize winner of the 5th Evgeny Svetlanov Competition in Montecarlo, Ram has recently been named the next Music Director of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, the fourth artistic leader in the organization's 91-year history. He has also served as Music Director of the Akademische Philharmonie Heidelberg since the 23/24 season.
Recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Szczecin Filharmonia, Orquestra do Algarve, Orchestra Indiana, Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, Magdeburg Philharmoniker, Ensemble Tempus Konnex, Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Ra’anana Sinfonietta, Robert-Schumann Philharmonic, as well as being spotlighted by the IMPULS Festival for contemporary music to which he will returns in 24/25. He had the pleasure of working with soloists such as Pekka Kuusisto, Kristīne Balanas, Amandine Savary, Ilian Garnetz, Ildikó Szabó and Charlotte Thiele, to name a few.
Equally comfortable in the pit as on stage, Ram made his Semperoper Dresden debut and return premiering Zad Moultaka’s “Drei Miese, fiese Kerle”. He was Guest Resident Conductor at the Theater Chemnitz for the 19/20 season where he led the revival of Udo Zimmermann’s Weiße Rose and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. As scholarship holder of the Akademie-Musiktheater-Heute supported by the Deutsche Bank Stiftung, he will premiere three new operas with Ensemble Modern in 24/25.
As a strong believer that anyone can achieve the highest musical result through joy, passion, and creative rehearsal strategies, Ram has worked with the German National Youth Ballet and the Youth North-German Philharmonic, the Dresden Special Music Highschool (Spezialschule), and as music director of the Leipzig University Orchestra between 2019-2024.
Always looking to deepen his understanding of current developments in art, Ram is one of the few candidates to have completed the Music.Multimedia.Managemt Project led by the Szczecin Philharmonic in collaboration with Fjord Cadenza Festival and TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art. Ram has participated in several international masterclasses and festivals, including the first-ever masterclass at the Bayreuther Festspiele for conductors. He has studied with Christian Thielemann, Klaus Mäkelä, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sakari Oramo, Neeme Järvi, Marek Janowski, Hartmut Haenchen, Robert Treviño, Steven Sloane, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Timothy Redmond, Nicolás Pasquet, Johannes Schlaefli, and Jorma Panula.
In 2015 Ram graduated Cum Laude from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel-Aviv with a B.A. in Orchestral Conducting and Musicology. He completed his Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden, in the class of Prof. Ekkehard Klemm and has completed the Advanced Professional Training for Conductors Program at the UdK Berlin, studying with Maestros Steven Sloane and Harry Curtis. Throughout his studies he has been supported by generous scholarships from the “Yotzrim” foundation for independent artists, AICF “Sharet”,and the DAAD Scholarship.
A firm believer in education and social causes, Ram spent a year before beginning his formal studies volunteering in underprivileged communities in Israel, working with children both in and outside the education system. During his studies in Tel-Aviv, he continued volunteering at the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights.