Rivka Golani

Rivka Golani was born in 1946 in Tel Aviv

Rivka Golani was born in Tel Aviv on 22 March 1946. Her father, Yakov Gulnik, came from Warsaw and lost his family in the Holocaust, and her mother, Liza Goldstein, came from Polish Galicia. She began playing the violin at age 7 and was a mathematics prodigy as a child.

At 18 she studied with the violinist Alexander Moskowsky. At 21 she moved to the viola and studied with Oedoen Partos. She then joined the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

She married the Hungarian luthier Otto Erdesz, who built the viola she has preferred throughout her career. In 1974 the couple moved to Canada, where her son was born, and she became a Canadian citizen in 1983. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, the BBC Symphony and the Toronto Symphony, and her recordings include the Bartok Concerto and Bach works arranged for solo viola.

After her divorce she married the German conductor Thomas Sanderling and moved to London. She now lives in London with her husband Jeremy Joseph Fox. She is also a painter and has shown her work in America, Canada, Israel and the UK.