musicians

Ofer Shelley	piano & arrangments	Yeela Avital	soprano
Tanya Beltser	violin	Valeria Ventura	soprano
Marina Kats	cello	Michal Okon	soprano

Born in Riga, (Latvia) in September 1977 and started her cello studies at the age of six with Igor Graps in The Emil Darzins Secondary Music School and 2 years after continued in the cello class of prof. Eleonora Testeletz. As a young cellist Marina participated in many international music festivals and competitions.
After her emigration to Israel in September 1994, Marina continued studies at the Samuel Rubin Music  Academy of in Tel - Aviv University and after graduating with a honors continued for the Second Degree in the Samuel Rubin Academy for Music and Dance in Jerusalem with prof. Emanuel Gruber.
Marina won several prizes in different music competitions, such as: the IV prize and the Laureate name in The First International Tchaikovsky Competition for young musicians (Moscow, 1992), II prize in the Braun Roger Siegel Foundation Competition for Israeli String Players (Jerusalem, 1996) and the Diploma in the Paul Ben-Haim Israeli Music Competition (Tel-Aviv, 1999). During 1995-2003, she won the scholarships from the America Israel Cultural Foundation. In April 1997 invited Marina to be a member of The Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra after conducting of Zeev Dorman and from 1998 to 2000 lead the cello section in this orchestra. One year later, in July 1999 she was invited to lead cello section in the West-Eastern-Divan Orchestra after conducting of Daniel Barenboim. In 2001 Marina was invited to participate at Rostropovich Cello Festival in Riga.
As a soloist, Marina performed several works with various orchestra: Latvian Chamber Orchestra Latvian Philharmonic Orchestra and “Ostankino” TV and Radio Orchestra in Moscow. Currently she is the principal cellist in the Israel Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra and chamber music player in the “Atar” trio.