As anyone who has attended the annual classical music event there in the past surely knows, holding a festival in such pleasant surroundings enhances the aural experience, complementing the onstage mix with other sensory pleasures.<\/p>\n
There is more of that in the offing. The folks over at the hotel have been hosting the festivalgoers and artists in style for some time now and, more recently, have been expanding the facilities and upgrading the aesthetic backdrop so that the event is now a fully in-house spread that is just as pleasing on the eye as on the ear.<\/p>\n
![\"Celebrated](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/742127.jpeg\"\/)
Celebrated Pop-Rock pianist-singer Shlomi Shaban runs the rule over his stellar career to date at Kfar Blum. (credit: DUDI HASSON)<\/p>\n
They have added an all-purpose concert auditorium building and are now investing in beautifying the commodious grounds, betwixt the sprawling lawns dotted with shade-giving trees.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s even without noting the peerless majesty of the Golan Heights<\/a> and steepling Mount Hermon seemingly \u2013 even without pre-winter whitecap \u2013 but a stone\u2019s throw away to the east.<\/p>\n Hotel deputy CEO Michal Moraly took me for a guided tour of a place I have come to know well over the past two-plus decades of popping up North for the music-based cultural weekends and the music festival.<\/p>\n They do say that familiarity can breed contempt, suggesting that one can become inured to charms encountered too often; but in all this time, my enjoyment of the accommodation and facilities offered by the Pastoral Hotel has dimmed nary a jot. There is nothing formulaic about the rooms and suites, housed in Italian-style, two-story buildings around the grounds.<\/p>\n Now the hotel plans to up the Tuscany ambiance ante by some deft design reimagining, such as the installation of ponds complete with goldfish and lilies, and an aqueduct to add the sound of gurgling water to the twittering of birds, and a soundtrack of pop and folk favorites gently piped through speakers at various vantage points.<\/p>\n The renovation and refurbishment program also includes constructing a large swimming pool, shaped to follow the contours of a grand piano, and relocating the gym from the basement of the spa wing of the main building to an upper floor overlooking the pool.<\/p>\n The current gym will be turned into an activity space for kids, as the hotel aims to bring more families and younger folk into its consumer catchment reach.<\/p>\n The Voice of Music Festival traditionally takes place in the summer, when the thermometer mercury level is high and even short walks between the comfortable air-conditioned concert halls and your accommodation or the dining room can get the sweat glands working overtime.<\/p>\n The forthcoming edition was shifted down the calendar due to yet another round of regional altercation, which means that the festivalgoers get to bask in gentler meteorological conditions betwixt the musical entertainment.<\/p>\n But even when the festival reverts to its regular July slot, the new pergolas, complete with climbing vegetation, fountains, and shaded benches should provide some respite from the summer heat.<\/p>\n Once again, veteran pianist-educator Dr. Ofra Yitzhaki serves as artistic director, and has put together a varied program that arches across manifold genres, eras, mindsets, and formats.<\/p>\n Over the years, open rehearsals have become a popular addition to the program, offering fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses of what goes into the elbow-grease preliminaries for the staged end product.<\/p>\n Each of the first four days features a bunch of Open Rehearsal spots, both at the hotel Opera Hall and at the nearby Charles Clore Center, as ensemble players go through their paces while toiling on scores by the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Ravel.<\/p>\n But Yitzhaki does not focus exclusively on the usual suspects. There are more contemporary works in the five-day agenda, such as by 20th-century American composer Samuel Barber, compatriot Florence Beatrice Price, Jewish Austrian-American modernist Arnold Schoenberg, and, coming bang up to date, contributions from 89-year-old Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov and 68-year-old Danish counterpart Bent Sorensen.<\/p>\n Yitzhaki says she tends to keep an open mind, ear, and heart when crafting her curatorial offerings.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I put together the festival program, I feel a threefold obligation: towards the audience, the musicians, and towards that abstract entity that is music,\u201d she declares. \u201cI want to provide the audience with a heart-lifting experience and give the musicians a repertoire that brings them joy and interest. But I feel it is also my job to care for culture.\u201d<\/p>\n For Yitzhaki there is far more on the line than just giving the patrons a decent return for their hard-earned shekels.<\/p>\n \u201c[I am duty bound] to preserve the gems through superb performances, generating cultural contexts that make it possible to gain a new and refreshing perspective, linking the music of the past and the music of the present, and to safeguard a place for local classical music so that art from here, from Israel, can progress and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Trumpeting homegrown composers<\/p>\n That is, indeed, a lofty, commendable aim, with the artistic director putting her money where her mouth is \u2013 for example, with the inclusion of the first airing of Piano Concerto No. 5 by Israeli composer Naama Perel-Tzadok, and the premiere of a definitively cross-cultural work by 28-year-old oud player-composer Onn Yosef Kadosh, Homage to Scarlatti for Flute, Harp and String Trio. The latter was commissioned by the festival with the support of the Israel Music Institute.<\/p>\n There is also a multidisciplinary aspect to the rollout, with Yitzhaki flexing her curatorial muscle to include a multifariously crafted production of Prokofiev\u2019s perennially popular Peter and the Wolf.<\/p>\n The rendition at Kfar Blum will be spearheaded by the Tel Aviv<\/a> Wind Quintet, with the polychromic performance taking in acting and movement under the directorial aegis of theater and opera performer, dancer, and sound and video artist Ari Teperberg.<\/p>\n Any onstage object is fair game for the artistic process, as junior audience members get a close earful and eyeful of the instruments doing their melodious thing.<\/p>\n![\"Pianist-artistic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/742128.jpeg\"\/)
Pianist-artistic director Ofra Yitzhaki has crafted an eclectic program of concerts and events. (credit: Miri Davidovitz)Keeping cool in Kfar Blum<\/p>\n![\"Vocalist-actress](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/742129.jpeg\"\/)
Vocalist-actress Ola Schur Selektar partners with Ofra Yitzhaki in the Hebrew Love Song Selection concert. (credit: Avital Palchi Peleg)<\/p>\n