Shachar Fraenkel
Shachar plays the violin. He had played it from age 8 to age 18 and picked it up again thanks to an invitation from the Weizmann Institute Orchestra. Shachar is a PhD student in theoretical condensed matter physics at Tel Aviv University, and in what remains of his spare time is also avidly interested in cinema and photography.
Aurélie Lachish-Zalait
Aurélie played the violin for ten years as a school student in chambre students’ ensembles and in a youth orchestra. She acquired a PhD in chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2005, and since 2010, she has worked at the Davidson Institute, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute. In 2023, as her passion for music was rekindled, she swiped the dust off of her old violin case and joined the Weizmann Institute orchestra, in which she especially cherishes the friendly atmosphere and the diversity of its members, who all share the love for music.
Anna Akhlimanova
Anna began playing the violin at the age of seven. She graduated from the musical school in her native town in Russia.
Anna has a Master's degree in chemical technology, and she's working now at the pharmaceutical company MediWound.
Shifra Lansky
Shifra began playing the violin at the age of three with the Suzuki method. At the age of eight, she went on to study with Dalia Yaakov at the Dunie Weizman Conservatory in Haifa and soon after joined the Merkaz Yuval youth orchestra in Haifa. Shifra then completed her BSc and PhD in chemistry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, during which she played in multiple chamber music groups and was a constant member of the Hebrew University Orchestra, with which she also performed many solo pieces. Following encouragement from the Hebrew University orchestra conductor Anita Kamien, Shifra resumed violin lessons during her PhD studies and studied for four years with Roi Shiloah at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. After the birth of her children, Shifra took a 5-year break from playing the violin, in the course of which she completed her postdoc abroad at Cornell University. In 2024, Shifra returned to Israel and opened her own lab in the Department of Chemical and Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute, where she is also very excited to resume playing the violin as part of the Weizmann Institute Orchestra.
Diana Muler
Diana inspires students to seek knowledge. Whenever she has a free moment, she dreams up musical ideas, tests them on her violin, and finally sets them down on paper.