Meet Inbal Segev

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Inbal Segev a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Inbal, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Growing up in Israel in a single parent family, my childhood was definitely leaning on Spartan, with not many distractions, so I focused my energies on the cello. My mother and I had music to keep us going and dreaming. When I got the opportunity to come to study at the Yale School of Music on a full scholarship, I came alone as we didn’t have the means for my mother to join. I was only 16 when I came to the US 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 were definitely resilience building.

The other challenging time in my life came after I graduated from Juilliard (I continued my studies at Juilliard after Yale). I think that this is a challenging time for a lot of people, and especially musicians, as we have to fend for ourselves without the safety net of school. I was freelancing in New York for a while, and trying to build my career, but it was going slowly. At this point, 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.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

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 sound track for his documentary titled, “Follow Me”, about a very special and optimistic Holocaust survivor.

This October 30th I will be performing a new work that was written for me by Ukrainian refugee composer Victoria Poleva at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. I hope to see you there!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I would say that what helped me most in my career is definitely perseverance, love of music, and inner drive. I also found a wonderful partner (my husband) who helps me with the business side of music. I would say that you might get away with having less perseverance if you are lucky, charming, or if you are naturally outgoing and business savvy. Knowing one’s self and finding people to help you achieve your goals is important. Not many people have all the qualities mentioned here and it’s important to “outsource” aspects of our career if we are not good at them.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

Finding ways in which I can contribute to the world of music and move forward the world of cello in particular. These thoughts are very much on my mind these days. As I wrote above, my performing career has taken me to all parts of the globe and I have spent years looking for the best way to play the cello and interpret great works that were written for my instrument. While I continue to play the beautiful repertoire that has been handed down to us from about 350 years ago until today–from J.S. Bach to Antonin Dvořák and to Anna Clyne today–I can’t help but think–what’s next? Whether it is the symbiosis of electronic music and acoustic music, film music and absolute music, cross cultural and cross genres–I am looking for what sparks my imagination and inspires me to keep going forward.

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Image Credits

Grant Legan

Veronica L. Yankowski

Bri Elledge

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