Yair Samet

Yair Samet (born in Jerusalem, Israel) is an Israeli conductor, composer, and pianist.
Samet was appointed first associate conductor of the San Jose Symphony Orchestra in 1994. In addition, he was nominated Music Director and Conductor of the San Jose Youth Symphony, with which he has toured Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Japan, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Chile, Argentina and Italy.
Samet has conducted the famed Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra on tour in Germany, the Saarländisches Staatsorchester in Saarbrücken, Germany, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in China, and the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra in Bosnia. In addition, he conducted the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Glinka Capella at Finland’s Tampere International Music Festival. In Israel he conducted the Haifa Symphony, the Rishon Le-Zion Symphony Orchestra, and the Israeli Sinfonietta in Beer Sheva.
In 2008 Maestro Samet made his debut with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting a program dedicated to composer Miklós Rózsa.
Samet also serves on the music faculty of the University of California Santa Cruz as a regular guest conductor, leading the UCSC Symphony Orchestra.
Samet has performed with renowned artists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Vadim Repin, David Shifrin, Han-Na Chang, Hélène Grimaud, Lara St. John, Raphael Wallfisch, Jon Nakamatsu, Axel Strauss, and Jon Kimura Parker.
Background
Samet attended the Rubin Academy High School of Music and Arts where he studied piano, bassoon, and composition. As a teenager, Mr. Samet performed frequently as soloist and chamber musician throughout Israel and for Israeli National Television.
Samet was the recipient of three scholarships from the America Israel Cultural Foundation. He began his formal orchestral conducting and musicology studies at Tel-Aviv University. He made his professional conducting debut in his early twenties with the Rishon Le-Zion Orchestra as a participant in Israel's International Course for Conductors under the direction of Maestro Noam Sheriff.
Having earned a national reputation as a gifted young conductor and musician, the Young Israel Philharmonic, a wing of the famed Israel Philharmonic, created the position of assistant conductor for him in 1989. This unique distinction allowed him to view closely the work of conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur and Claudio Abbado.
Samet completed his graduate studies in conducting and composition in the United States at Indiana University where he conducted the Indiana University String Orchestra and gave concerts with each of the University’s five orchestras.

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