Mira Zakai

Mira Zakai was born in 1942 in Jerusalem

Mira Zakai was born in Jerusalem as Mira Koigen. Her father, George Koigen, was an architect, and her mother, Eva Koigen-Patai, was a writer and poet. She was a granddaughter of Joseph Patai.

She graduated from the art teachers seminary in Tel Aviv. At Tel Aviv University she earned a bachelor's degree in Hebrew literature and theater, and she later studied at the Rubin Academy of Music, graduating in 1976.

Zakai sang with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and others. She made her opera debut with Scottish Opera in Glasgow as Orfeo in Gluck's opera. Her 1982 recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Georg Solti won a Grammy award.

She sang as soloist for Yehudi Menuhin at a concert for Pope John Paul II. She recorded many Israeli art songs, and in 1990 she won the Arts and Culture Council prize for performing Israeli works.

In 1997 she turned to teaching as a professor at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music. She wrote a book on music with composer André Hajdu. She died in 2019 after complications of a stroke, and was survived by her husband Jacob Zakai and two daughters.