Coral Solomon

Israeli born pianist, Coral Solomon-Berkovsky has been praised for her “distinct sensibility” and “original view” (Radio Romania Musical), and has performed numerous solo recitals throughout Canada, USA, Italy, France, Spain, Romania, and Israel. She has appeared as soloist with over a dozen orchestras across Canada, Italy, and Romania- where she performed with the state philharmonic orchestras of Sibiu, Timisoara, Brasov, Bacau, Arad, Tergu Mures, Ploiesti, Ramnicu Valcea, among others. Upon her 3rd collaboration with the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra, she debuted a piano concerto transcription of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Corelli. The work was written and dedicated to her by conductor emeritus of New Jersey Plainfield Symphony, Sabin Pautza, who also conducted the premier.
 
Devoted to the musical education scene, she will be serving as director of The Royal Conservatory of Music’s (RCM) inaugural Summer Piano Performance Intensive commencing August 2025. Solomon is frequently invited to adjudicate competitions and lead masterclasses. She currently maintains a full-time private studio at her home in Thornhill where her students regularly perform and place highly in competitions and exams. She is also the director of the Berkovsky-Solomon Academy of Music (BSAM), founded by her and her husband, Michael Berkovsky, which offers additional piano and theory instructors in several locations across the Greater Toronto Area as well as online. which offers additional piano and theory instructors in several locations across the Greater Toronto Area as well as online. Through her program, she supports and tries to expose students to different social and career platforms in our music community. She often is involved with organizing several local events each term as well as hosting international guest masterclasses, concerts, and other educational events. Her Academy partnered with the generous Arts Access Fund which financially assists need-based families through covering a portion of their music lesson tuition. Solomon has also collaborated with running other educational projects, such as serving as a founding director and advisor for the Avenue Road Music and Performance Academy as they launched their new music program in the summer of 2022. She was invited to join the RCM College of Examiners and has become an Examiner in 2022.

Prior to the pandemic she had roles in diverse projects including serving as artistic director for the first Canadian edition of the George Enescu International Festival (originating in Romania, where it is one of the largest classical music festivals in the world) and performing in the Festival’s opening concert with the concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Crow. She has worked with Academy Award winning actress Cate Blanchett, as her piano coach for the TV series: “Mrs. America”; and has appeared as the piano soloist in Toronto’s internationally acclaimed Fall for Dance North Festival that took place in the Meridian Hall (formally known as the Sony Centre). She is grateful for the support of Beethoven Society of Pianists - Greater Toronto Chapter which has kindly sponsored BSAM student initiatives, through scholarships and covering partial performance expenses in several of the local venues these past years.
 
After moving with her family to Toronto in 2004, Solomon was a student at the Young Artist Performance Academy of the Royal Conservatory of Music. She was interviewed by numerous North American and European television channels and has participated in intensive international summer festivals such as the Pianofest in the Hamptons (Long Island, NY), the Morningside Music Bridge Institute (Calgary), and the Toronto Summer Music Institute.
 
Solomon has completed her undergraduate degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music and her Master’s degree at Boston University, under the tutelage of Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Pavel Nersessian respectively. During her studies in the United States, she was a recipient of the generous Canada Council for the Arts’ Musician Grant. Solomon is currently pursuing her Doctoral of Music degree in piano performance at the University of Toronto with Enrico Elisi, on full scholarship. Inspired by all the singing and dancing she frequently does with her two young and funny children, she has taken on a new hobby, as a certified RCM Smart Start instructor, to introduce more beautiful babies and toddlers to the magical world of classical music.