Shirley Brill

Shirley Brill was born in 1982 in Petah Tikva

Shirley Brill was born in August 1982 in Petah Tikva. She first studied clarinet with Yitzhak Katzap at the Petah Tikva Conservatory. The America-Israel Cultural Foundation supported her throughout her studies.

From 2000 she studied in Germany with Sabine Meyer at the Musikhochschule Lübeck. She also studied with Richard Stoltzman at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

She began her solo career at 16 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. She has played with orchestras in Europe and at festivals such as the BBC Proms and the Schubertiade. Since 2009 she has been principal clarinetist of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim.

She was a guest professor at the Hanns Eisler music school in Berlin from 2012 and joined the Barenboim-Said Akademie in 2016. In October 2018 she became Professor of Clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik Saar in Saarbrücken. She is married to pianist Jonathan Aner, her partner in Duo Brillaner, and they live in Berlin with their 3 daughters.