1. WHEN CHAIRS REVOLT
Ronen Sharabani turns digital imagery into a visceral spatial experience, transforming the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s grand entrance into a shifting architectural landscape. In his new site-specific work Connections, Sharabani invites visitors to use their mobile devices to “throw” digital threads onto a massive screen, attempting to stabilize chairs, a recurring motif in his work, and a symbol of human presence and fragility.
As participation intensifies, five AI-powered robots join the action, first assisting, then gradually competing for dominance and narrative control. What begins as collaboration slips into disruption, blurring the boundary between user agency and machine autonomy.
Part of the Entrance Screen project, the installation probes the uneasy moment when technology shifts from a helpful tool into an independent force with its own appetite for power.
Ongoing until April 25. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Paul and Herta Amir Building. www.tamuseum.org.il
2. BLINDNESS, BY CHOICE
The Israeli Opera presents a new production of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky’s most intimate operatic work that is finally making its Israeli stage debut. Directed by Shirit Lee Weiss and conducted by Dan Ettinger, the opera tells the story of a blind princess whose father has concealed her condition since childhood, believing ignorance to be a form of protection.
Last performances: January 23 at 1 p.m.; January 24 at 8 p.m.; January 26 and 28 at 6 p.m. The Shlomo Lahat Opera House, Tel Aviv. www.israel-opera.co.il/show/iolanta
3. AMERICA, IMAGINED
What does “American music” actually sound like? This Israel Philharmonic program approaches the question as both a geographical and an emotional journey. Under the baton of Roberto Forés Veses, with violinist Vadim Gluzman as soloist, the evening brings together composers who shaped the American sound from markedly different perspectives.
Shulamit Ran’s “Chicago Skyline” opens with urban tension and architectural boldness. Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade,” inspired by Plato’s Symposium, turns inward, philosophical, and searching. Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” follows with open horizons and pastoral optimism, before Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” closes the arc in a swirl of jazz-inflected energy.
January 23 at 11 a.m.; January 24 and 25 at 8 p.m., Charles Bronfman Auditorium, Tel Aviv; January 27 at 8 p.m., Haifa Auditorium. www.ipo.co.il
4. DIRTY MUSIC, NO APOLOGIES
The Italian ensemble Sticky Bones brings the raw, unvarnished spirit of early American jazz to the local stage. Drawing on blues and jazz traditions from the 1900s through the 1930s, the group recreates the sounds of speakeasies, Vaudeville halls, and late-night barrelhouse clubs.
Led by vocalist Irina Arozarena and featuring an acoustic lineup that includes banjo and tuba, the ensemble channels the rough textures of King Oliver and Fats Waller without polishing away their grit.
January 23 at 9 p.m., Tel Aviv Museum of Art. January 24 at 9 p.m., Abba Hushi House, Haifa. shamayim.smarticket.co.il
5. MUSIC AFTER ERASURE
Czech virtuoso Pavel Sporcl, known for his signature blue violin, returns to Israel for a poignant concert to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026. As part of the Into the Light project, which resurrects forgotten works from archives around the world, Sporcl joins Israeli pianist Michael Zartsekel in restoring silenced voices to the stage.
Works by Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, and Erwin Schulhoff, composers murdered by the Nazi regime, are placed alongside music by Dvorák and Smetana, figures who shaped the national sound that once nurtured them. The evening seeks not only to memorialize loss but to reclaim artistic identity and continuity through sound.
January 26 at 8 p.m., Israel Conservatory of Music, Tel Aviv.
www.magnificent-jewish-music.com
6. WANDS WELCOME
The Israel Sinfonietta invites young audiences into a theatrical musical encounter where Harry Potter brushes shoulders with Mozart and Beethoven.
“The Magic Baton” blends familiar film melodies with light classical works, in a format designed to spark curiosity rather than instruction. Children create glowing magic wands ahead of the performance, eventually becoming part of the spectacle themselves.
January 27 at 5:30 p.m., Tamuz Hall, Beersheba Performing Arts Center. isb7.co.il
7. MEMORY, WITHOUT MERCY
Rami Be’er’s Aide Mémoire returns to the stage in a powerful revival by the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. Created in 1994, the work has become a cornerstone of Israeli contemporary dance, confronting the legacy of the Holocaust through the embodied memory of a second-generation survivor.
Avoiding narrative or historical reconstruction, Be’er shapes a stark, universal movement language that speaks to trauma, endurance, and the persistent longing for human connection. After hundreds of performances worldwide, the work remains unsettling, urgent, and painfully relevant.
January 27 at 8 p.m., Zichri Hall, Ga’aton. January 31, February 1, and 2 at 8 p.m., Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv. February 16 at 8 p.m., Rehovot Cultural Center. February 26 at 8 p.m., Sherover Auditorium, Jerusalem Theatre. www.kcdc.co.il
8. WHEN POETS TESTIFY
Marking 80 years since the Nuremberg Trials, Anu, Museum of the Jewish People hosts a special evening on the testimony of Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever. The program brings together former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak and theater manager Noam Semel for a conversation on the moral weight of witnessing, accompanied by theatrical excerpts from The Witness.
January 27 at 8 p.m., Anu, Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv.
www.anumuseum.org.il
9. THE FIELD, REOPENED
Ohad Naharin’s Sadeh21 returns to the Batsheva Dance Company’s repertoire after a six-year absence. Built as a sequence of distinct movement “fields,” the work distills Naharin’s Gaga language into an intense physical dialogue driven by precision, repetition, and raw presence.
Set to a soundtrack that moves from Pachelbel to industrial electronic music, and dedicated to movement pioneer Noa Eshkol, the piece remains a masterclass in controlled energy and collective focus.
January 27, 28, and 31. January 30 (matinée), Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv. www.batsheva.co.il
10. AFTER CALLAS, THE ECHO
The myth of opera diva Maria Callas returns to the concert hall in “The Voice of Maria,” a tribute tour conducted by Constantine Orbelian that sidesteps simple nostalgia. Performed by the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva, the program revisits the high-stakes repertoire forever associated with “La Divina,” featuring rising soprano Diana Skavronskaya and seasoned tenor Berj Karazian.
Highlights from Bellini’s Norma, Bizet’s Carmen, and Puccini’s La Bohème unfold alongside works by Rossini and Dvorák, tracing the staggering emotional and vocal range that defined Callas’s legacy.
Skavronskaya, a recent award-winner in San Francisco, and Karazian, who has graced stages from Carnegie Hall to the Dubai Opera, bring contemporary technical brilliance to these classic scores. Rather than a mere imitation, the evening offers a modern interpretation, allowing these vibrant new voices to inhabit an operatic shadow that still graces the international stage.
January 29 at 7:30 p.m., Henry Crown Auditorium, Jerusalem Theatre. January 31 at 8:30 p.m., Beersheba Performing Arts Center. February 2 at 7:30 p.m., Edith Hall, Kiryat Gat. isb7.co.il