Efi Hackmey

Pianist Efi Hackmey is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players, a concert series in Washington, DC, founded in 2015. A recipient of a prestigious 2020 Classical Commissioning grant from Chamber Music America, several grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the inaugural John Franzén Award for the Arts from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, Chiarina has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming.

Mr. Hackmey is an active soloist and chamber musician. He has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, Kennedy Center (Terrace Theater and Millennium Stage), Bargemusic, Arion Chamber Music, and the Friends of Mozart series in NYC. He performed many additional concerts in Alabama, California, DC, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming. In his native Israel he performed as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Jerusalem Music Center, and in special concerts presented by the Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society. He has performed on Israeli TV Channel 2, and his recordings have been broadcast on the Israeli National Public Radio, and in the US on WETA, WTSU, WRWA and WTJB. His recordings include a 2013 album on the Naxos label, which includes several world premiere recordings (Polish Violin Music with violinist Kinga Augustyn).

A review of one of his New York performances quotes “excellent Israeli musician... under his fingers the piano sounded noble, and each phrase was full of character”, and further praises his “highly personal, thought-through interpretation.” (Roman Markowicz, “Nowy Dziennik”). A recent review of a Chiarina performance mentions that “Hackmey mastered the work’s challenges with aplomb, but the performance was just as notable for how sensitively he accompanied his musical partners…”(Charles T. Downey, Washington Classical Review).

Efi is also dedicated to performing for underserved audiences. He is on the artist roster of the Piatigorsky Foundation, and performed numerous tours with cellist Evan Drachman and with soprano Raquela Sheeran in North Carolina, Maryland, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Texas. These concerts included performances in nursing homes, retirement communities, public schools, public libraries, churches, and other community settings.

Mr. Hackmey has served on the piano faculty at DePauw University, and he also taught at the Indiana University system and Montgomery College in Rockville, MD. He holds a Doctor of Music degree in piano performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and degrees in piano and conducting from Tel Aviv University. He studied with Menahem Pressler, Pnina Salzman and Dina Turgeman, and has had additional coaching with Lazar Berman, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Janos Starker, David Zinman, and Jaime Laredo.