A central recent project was a new Hebrew production of Viktor Ullmann’s chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis, created in collaboration with the Carmel Quartet and the Meitar Ensemble. Cohen-Shalit conducted the production and was also involved in its orchestration, musical preparation, dramaturgy, and staging, approaching the opera both as an important historical work and as an immediate, living piece of music theatre.

       The production developed from his work as Music Director of Into the Light, a project devoted to music by Jewish composers active during the Nazi era and its aftermath. Under his musical direction, the project presented works by composers including Pavel Haas, Henriëtte Bosmans, Norbert Glanzberg, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Viktor Ullmann, and others. Its concerts combined established repertoire with neglected works, Israeli premieres, and newly prepared performing materials.

Research and Historical Performance

Cohen-Shalit received his PhD in musicology from New York University in 2025. His dissertation, Paradigm Lost: Performance and Pre-Performance Practices of 19th-Century German Orchestras, examines the rehearsal processes, working methods, annotated performance materials, and institutional practices of nineteenth-century orchestras. His research asks how historical evidence might inform present-day orchestral performance—not only through questions of tempo, articulation, or style, but also through the ways musicians rehearse, communicate, make decisions, and understand their individual responsibilities within an ensemble.

       This research forms an integral part of his work as a conductor. Rather than treating musicology and performance as separate disciplines, he uses archival evidence as a source of practical artistic possibilities. His aim is not to reconstruct a single authoritative version of the past, but to question habits that modern orchestras may take for granted and to explore alternative approaches to rehearsal, interpretation, ensemble relationships, and musical leadership. 

       Cohen-Shalit has presented this work at international conferences and institutions including the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Indiana University, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of Oxford, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also published on nineteenth-century orchestral practice, conducting, rehearsal culture, and annotated performance materials.

Opera and Music Theatre

Opera and music theatre form a central part of Cohen-Shalit’s professional and artistic work. He currently serves as Head of Music at the Israeli Opera, where he is involved in the musical preparation and development of the company’s productions. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Israeli Opera as an assistant conductor on productions including Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, Israeli premieres of Weinberg’s The Passenger, Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and world premieres of Hanoch Levin and Yoni Rechter’s Schitz and Haim Permont’s The Lady and the Peddler.

       His theatre work extends beyond conducting to musical preparation, dramaturgy and the development of new productions. This combination allows him to approach music theatre from several perspectives at once: the dramatic structure of a work, the relationship between text and music, the needs of singers and instrumentalists, and the overall shape and pacing of a performance. Recent projects in this field include an orchestral programme devoted to the love songs of Stephen Sondheim with the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva, and Sonia, an original musical by Shahar Shamai and Guy Frati, produced by the Revolution Orchestra in collaboration with the Haifa Theatre.

       His longstanding engagement with musical theatre also includes teaching, writing, arranging, and orchestrating, with a particular interest in works that resist a clear separation between musical and dramatic expression.

Programming, Repertoire, and Musical Dramaturgy

A defining aspect of Cohen-Shalit’s work is his attraction to unusual repertoire and programmes built around a strong artistic idea. He frequently places familiar works alongside music that has been neglected, suppressed, displaced, or excluded from the conventional orchestral canon. He is particularly committed to music by Jewish composers who lived and worked during the Nazi era, including composers who were persecuted, forced into exile, or subsequently marginalised in concert life. His work in this area seeks to present these composers not solely through the circumstances of their persecution, but as individual artistic voices whose music deserves an active place in contemporary performance.

       More broadly, Cohen-Shalit approaches programming as a form of musical dramaturgy: a way of creating relationships between works, historical periods, biographies, and ideas. His projects often connect canonical repertoire with rediscovered works, Israeli music, new compositions, theatrical material, and historical documentation.

Writing, Editing, and Education

Cohen-Shalit writes and lectures in both Hebrew and English. He has presented academic papers, public lectures, pre-concert talks, he moderated concerts, and has written essays and programme notes for orchestras, theatres, festivals, and cultural institutions, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cameri Theatre.

       He is also an experienced orchestrator, arranger, music copyist, and score editor. His work includes preparing new performing materials, adapting works for different instrumental forces, and collaborating with composers, singers, instrumentalists, directors, and other creative partners. He recently edited a critical performance edition of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Three Sephardic Songs, published by IEMJ.

 

       Cohen-Shalit studied orchestral conducting at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and completed a combined master’s degree in musicology and orchestral and choral conducting at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Academy. He later received an MPhil and PhD in musicology from New York University.

       Across these different areas of work, his central interest remains the same: bringing scholarship, historical curiosity, theatrical imagination, and practical musicianship together in creating exciting performances.