Nitai Hershkovits

Nitai Hershkovits
Nitai Hershkovits, Avishai Cohen and Daniel Dor at Umeå Jazz Festival, 2014
Background information

Nitai Hershkovits (Hebrew: ניתאי הרשקוביץ) (born February 21, 1988) is an Israeli jazz pianist and composer. He is mostly known from collaborating with international bassist and composer Avishai Cohen in the studio and on tour.

Born in Israel to a Moroccan mother and a Polish father, Hershkovits started playing the clarinet at age 12, only to discover his love for the piano at age 15. Around that time, he was first exposed to the sound of jazz giants such as Wynton Kelly and Sonny Clark.

By the time he was 17, Hershkovits had moved to Tel Aviv to combine regular school with private music and piano lessons under the guidance of jazz educators Amit Golan and Yuval Cohen. He soon became interested in a rich variety of both classical and jazz music.

Hershkovits also studied classical music and theory for two years with well-known Israeli composer and educator Dr. Menahem Weisenberg and classical music educators Shoshana Cohen and Amir Pedorovits.

Hershkovits has performed and collaborated with many noted artists, among them- Jorge Rossy, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Greg Tardy, Ari Hoenig, Charles Davis, Mark Guiliana, Zohar Fresco, Steve Davis, Diego Urcola and Robert Sadin. He has also recorded for Daniel Zamir's Redemption Songs (John Zorn's Tzadik), "One" (Hatav Hashmini), for flutist Ilan Salem's album Wild(Razdaz), in 2011, and for Avi Lebovich's 2013 album Volcano. Nitai can also be heard on Layerz's "Things On Top of Each Other" (Raw Tapes/2014), featured artist on "All Original" (Razdaz/2014) and Sprouts' "Sprouts" (Indie/2013).

Hershkovits was awarded the highest scholarship given by the Israel-American Music Foundation (AICF) four years in a row between 2004 and 2010.