HARTFORD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Carolyn Kuan, Music Director

DINUR CONDUCST TCHAIKOVSKY

Friday, October 23, 2026/ 8 PM
Saturday, October 24, 2026/ 8 PM
Sunday, October 25, 2026 / 3 PM
Belding Theater, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts

Yaniv Dinur, conductor & Music Director Finalist 
Ying Li, piano

The post of Music Director is endowed by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation.

We kindly request that you refrain from using flash photography and video recording during the performance, however we encourage you take 

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra receives major support from the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation, and with support from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Music Director Search Sponsors

Jeffrey & Nancy Hoffman
The Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation

Yaniv Dinur is lauded for his insightful interpretations and unique ability to connect with concertgoers of all ages and backgrounds, from season subscribers to symphony newcomers. He currently serves as Music Director for the New Bedford Symphony and the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. Under his leadership, the New Bedford Symphony has been nationally recognized for its bold, engaging programming and artistic quality, leading to the League of American Orchestras selecting the orchestra to perform at the 2021 League Conference.

Dinur served as Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra between 2016-2024, during which he conducted hundreds of concerts. Recognizing his leadership and impact, the Milwaukee Business Journal selected him as a 40 Under 40 honoree in 2019, an award for young professionals making a difference in the community. Dinur remains in close contact with the Milwaukee Symphony. He recently returned to the orchestra as a guest conductor, and he plays chamber music with members of the MSO year-round. He is the founder and artistic director of the Winterlude Chamber Music Series at the Villa Terrace Museum as well as the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival.

Yaniv Dinur made his conducting debut at the age of 19 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, which led to multiple return engagements. Since then, he has conducted orchestras around the world, including the Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Houston Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, New World Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Portugal Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Festival Orchestra/Bulgaria, State Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Torino Philharmonic, Orchestra Filarmonica de Madrid, Edmonton Symphony, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Recent and upcoming guest conducting highlights include debuts with the Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, New Hampshire Music Festival, and Present Music in Milwaukee. Dinur has collaborated with world-renowned soloists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, and Itzhak Perlman.

Dinur is the winner of numerous awards, among them the 2019 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Fellow Award, 2017 and 2016 Solti Career Assistance Awards, 2nd Prize at the 2009 Mata International Conducting Competition in Mexico, and the Yuri Ahronovitch 1st Prize in the 2005 Aviv Conducting Competition in Israel. He is also a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Zubin Mehta Scholarship Endowment.

Born in Jerusalem, Dinur began studying the piano at the age of six with his aunt, Olga Shachar. He continued his studies with Prof. Alexander Tamir, and most recently with Edna Golandsky. He studied conducting in Israel with Dr. Evgeny Zirlin and Prof. Mendi Rodan, and holds a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where he was a student of Prof. Kenneth Kiesler.

Ying Li Chinese pianist Ying Li is a winner of the 2021 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as recipient of The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize. She has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions including the inaugural Antonio Mormone International Prize, Sarasota Artist Series Piano Competition, Brevard Music Festival, International Liszt Piano Competition for Young Pianists, and was a finalist at Concours musical international de Montréal.

She has performed with many leading orchestras such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Brevard Music Festival Orchestra, L’Accademia Orchestra del La Scala, NWD-Philharmoniker, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic with conductors such as Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Xian Zhang, Dan Ettinger, Eric Jacobsen, Jonathon Heyward, Dame Jane Glover, and Leslie Suganandarajah. Recent concerto highlights include appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Aiken Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Carolina Philharmonic, Kiel Philharmonic at Sala Verdi in Milan, Chamber Orchestra Aquila, Anchorage Symphony, Loudoun Symphony, and the Maryland Symphony. In a celebrated last-minute substitution this past season, she performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Oregon Symphony under conductor David Danzmayr to critical acclaim. Upcoming orchestral engagements include the Bozeman Symphony with Maestro Norman Huynh, the Missouri Symphony, Lakeside Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Canton Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, and a return tour with the Nuremberg Symphony.

Ying made her New York City recital debut at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in the Peter Marino Concert and her Washington, D.C. debut at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. Additional recital engagements have included Pepperdine University in Malibu, Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore, Sunday Musicale in New Jersey, Southeastern Piano Festival, the Honest Brook Music Festival, University of Florida in Gainesville, the Milano Torino Festival Internazionale della Musica, Laguna Beach, The 222 in Healdsburg CA, Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music, Hammerklavier International Piano Festival in Barcelona, Musica Insieme Bologna, Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Fazioli Pianoforti in Sacile, the C. Bechstein Series at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and the YCA Season Finale at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. She was also featured on WQXR’s Eine-kleine Birthday-musik, a free, all-Mozart live-streamed concert from The Greene Space in New York City. Upcoming recital engagements include the Nantucket Musical Arts Society and Portland Piano International. 

As an avid chamber musician, Ying has appeared at prestigious festivals around the world including the Verbier Festival Academy, ClassicheFORME International Chamber Music Festival in Lecce, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, La Jolla Music Society, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Artists Series Concerts in Sarasota, the Bravo! Vail Piano Fellows program, La Jolla SummerFest, the Nantucket Musical Arts Society, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. Upcoming chamber engagements include a collaboration with the Ivalas Quartet, Curtis On Tour, and the Buffalo Chamber Music Society. Ying began piano lessons at age five in China and studied at the Elementary School division of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing before moving to Philadelphia in 2012 at age fourteen to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jonathan Biss and Seymour Lipkin. After receiving her Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute in 2019, she pursued both her Master of Music and Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School under the guidance of Robert McDonald.

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