Yaëla Hertz

Yaëla Hertz – a Sabra who settled in Quebec as a young woman – was integral to the history of classical music in Montreal as a consummate musician, revered teacher and mentor, and one of the first women to hold the position of concertmaster in any professional orchestra.

Hertz was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then Palestine. Her mother, Atara Glickson-Hertz, was concertmaster at the Palestine Opera, and was her daughter’s first violin teacher. During the Israeli War of Independence, Hertz served in the IDF, playing violin for the troops.

She participated in two violin competitions in her teens, at 16 in Geneva and at 19 in Prague, where she wore an Israeli uniform and won honours. She was then awarded a full scholarship to attend Juilliard. There, Hertz was introduced to Alexander Brott by her teacher, Misha Mischakoff, Toscanini’s concertmaster. At Brott’s invitation, she joined the McGill Chamber Orchestra first as a soloist and then as concertmaster; she held the latter position from 1959 through 2002.

Hertz was also a professor of violin, a soloist, a member of the Hertz Trio, a member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and a violin coach with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. She taught at McGill University, Vincent D’Indy, the Conservatoire du Quebec and KlezKanada. Hertz recorded with the McGill Chamber Orchestra; with CBC radio as a soloist; with the Montreal Trio with her brother, cellist Talmon Hertz , and violist Steve Kondaks; and with the Hertz Trio with Talmon and pianist Dale Bartlett.

During many of her concert tours, Hertz gave master classes in violin and chamber music, working with programs like the Musicians of Tomorrow – an intensive music program in northern Israel for talented children, founded by Maxim Vengerov and Anna Rosnovsky.

Hertz and her husband, Dr. Nathan Berkson, a Montreal surgeon, had three children.