GAL KOHAV
ABOUT GAL.
BIOGRAPHY.
Israeli-American mezzo-soprano Gal Kohav regularly performs at the Israeli Opera and collaborates with local orchestras. She is a former member of the Israeli Opera’s prestigious young artist program, the Meitar Opera Studio. In the 2023/2024 season of the Israeli Opera, Gal performed the roles of Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto (Verdi), Sister Mathilde in Dialogues des Carmélites (Poulenc), and Bird/Card/Yimon in the original production of Alice in Wonderland by David Sebba. Gal frequently performs in the Israeli Opera’s robust children's productions, singing the roles of Cenerentola in La Cenerentola (Rossini), Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck), and Papagena and Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart).
Gal’s 2022/2023 season highlights include significant roles with the Israeli Opera, such as Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (Puccini) and Rosina in a family production of Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini). Gal also sang the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Mozart) with the Symphonette Raanana.
Her wide operatic repertoire ranges from the baroque to contemporary works and includes the roles of Sesto in La clemenza di Tito (Mozart), Mother Goose in The Rake's Progress (Stravinsky), the title role in Amadigi di Gaula (Handel), Ramiro in La finta Giardiniera (Mozart), Constance Fletcher in The Mother of Us All (Thomson), and Opera Box Ghost in The Ghosts of Versailles (Corigliano), among others.
An enthusiastic advocate of new music, Gal has created leading roles in world premiere productions, including Julek in Lost Childhood (Janice Hamer), the title role in Juana (Carla Lucero), and Satan in Akeidah (Michel Klein) with Opera UCLA. Gal recently created two world premieres of Israeli productions: Theodor and Hanoch Levin: The Opera with the Israeli Opera.
Gal has performed as a soloist with the Raanana Symphonette and the Ramat Gan Symphony Orchestra. She also performed the alto solos in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky Cantata and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the UCLA Philharmonia.
Gal received the Keren Ronen Foundation Scholarship (2022). She was a second-place winner of the 2018 Hershey Felder Competition and the first-place winner of the Saddleback Concerto Competition, the Music Teachers' Association of California, the OCC Anniversary Scholarship, and the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity Competition (Orange County Chapter).
Gal holds a Master of Music in Opera Performance from the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music with an emphasis in Vocal Performance from the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA.
ROLES.
Corigliano | The Ghosts of Versailles | Opera Box Ghost/Susanna
Cnaan, Yonatan | Theodor | Lotte/Priest
Donizetti | Lucia di Lammermoor | Alisa
Hamer, Janice | Lost Childhood | Julek
Handel |Ariodante | Ariodante
Handel | Amadigi | Amadigi
Janáček | The Cunning Little Vixen | Dog
Lucero, Carla | Juana | Juana
Klein, Michel | Akeidah | Satan
Mozart | Don Giovanni | Zerlina
Mozart | La clemenza di Tito | Sesto
Mozart | La finta giardiniera | Ramiro
Poulenc | Dialogues des Carmélites | Soeur Mathilde
Puccini | Madama Butterfly | Kate Pinkerton
Thompson | The Mother of Us All | Constance Fletcher
Stravinsky | The Rake's Progress | Mother Goose
Verdi | Rigoletto | Countess Ceprano
PARTIAL ROLES
Britten | A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Hermia
Humperdinck | Hänsel und Gretel | Hänsel
Mozart | Die Zauberflöte | Papagena, 2nd Lady
Rossini | La Cenerentola | Cenerentola
Rossini | Il barbiere di Siviglia | Rosina
PREPARED ROLES
Donizetti | L'elisir d'amore | Giannetta
Gounod | Faust | Siebel
Gounod | Romeo et Juliette | Stephano
Mozart | Le nozze di Figaro |Cherubino
Rossini | Il barbiere di Siviglia | Berta