We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Inbal Segev. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Inbal below.

Inbal, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I had the opportunity to study at the Yale School of Music on a full scholarship when I was only 16 years old. I came to the US alone as we didn’t have the means for my mother to join, and I didn’t see my family for two years. In retrospect, the culture shock and being alone in a foreign country at such a young age was a big risk, but it led me to build my career and life here – including meeting my wonderful husband.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a cellist, a composer and a commissioner of new works. I have toured the world playing my cello as soloist with major orchestras. My husband and I commission new works for cello. One of these works has garnered over 11 million Spotify listens and a few are being played regularly by myself and by many other major cellists, so expanding the cello repertoire is at the core of what I do. Since the pandemic I also started composing. My works have been premiered and recorded, and I have been very fortunate to collaborate now with film director Yaniv Rokah, writing the soundtrack for his documentary titled, “Follow Me”, about a very special and optimistic Holocaust survivor.

I am from Israel and began playing cello at age 5. As I mentioned earlier, I moved to the US at age 16 and earned degrees from Yale University and The Juilliard School. I now live in New York with my husband and children.

Later this spring I will perform with The Florida Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, musicians of the San Diego Symphony, and West Michigan Symphony. I also look forward to working with Leonard Slatkin among the other wonderful conductors this season – it’s all very thrilling!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

One way for growing my clientele that is perhaps not so obvious in the classical music world is social media, and I have reached tens of thousands of people around the world using Instagram and YouTube.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A challenging time in my life came after I graduated from Juilliard. It’s always a challenging time for a lot of people, but especially musicians. You suddenly have to fend for yourself without the safety net of school. I freelanced in New York for some time while trying to build my career, but it felt very slow. I had already performed with some of the world’s biggest orchestras, so it was humbling to start again in a city where I was just one of many talented musicians. Through my resilience I grew into my career where I perform all over the world and have expanded into composing and commissioning.