He was born on 16 November 2005 in Netanya, Israel, and spent his childhood near Jerusalem. His interest in the piano began at the age of four, thanks to his older sister Veronica – a student of pianist Eitan Globerson – who frequently shared her music with her siblings.
Yehuda’s family has Polish roots, and the Polish language was sometimes spoken at home in Israel. His later move to Poland felt, in his words, like a ‘return to his roots’. Emigration deepened his connection to the music of Fryderyk Chopin, which he regards as the essence of Polishness:
‘The truth is, when I came to Poland, Chopin was everywhere. In every school, there’s Chopin. So he was always at the back of my mind, and when I watched the [Chopin] Competition in 2015, I dreamed of playing on that stage [at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw]’,
he recalled in an interview with TVP3. That dream would soon become reality. Moving to Poland provided ideal conditions to explore the interpretive depths of Chopin’s music. Reflecting on his performance of the Mazurka in B minor, op. 33, no. 4 during the competition preliminaries, he said in an interview with Radio Wnet:
‘First and foremost, you have to feel the atmosphere – and because I live in Poland, I feel it every day. [...] In the mazurkas, Chopin showed the adventure he experienced in Poland. I believe this is his greatest story about the country. [...] Chopin wrote that the final notes of this mazurka are a kind of apparition that vanishes. If those final notes express something like that, then the entire piece must be about it. That’s what you need to think about when you play’.
After moving to Kraków at the age of eight, Yehuda began formal piano classes. He graduated from the Władysław Żeleński State Secondary Music School in the class of Professor Stefan Wojtas – an acclaimed Kraków-based teacher known for guiding pianists such as Krzysztof Książek and Szymon Nehring. Yehuda studied with him until the professor’s passing in 2024. He is currently studying at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków under the guidance of Krzysztof Książek.
He has won prizes at more than thirty national and international competitions. A turning point in his career came with his qualification for Stage I of the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 2025 as one of thirteen pianists representing Poland. He also earned sixth prize at the 53rd National Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2025) and fifth prize, together with the Chopin Prize, at the 13th International Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam Young Pianist Competition in Bydgoszcz (2024).
As a young artist, he has also found success in chamber music. From 2018 to 2024, he performed as part of the ProKosz Piano Duo alongside pianist Eryk Koszela. Together, they won Grand Prix awards at the Roma International Piano Competition (2023), the Duettissimo Competition in Kraków (2022), and the KraCamera International Chamber Music Competition (2021).
Beyond his work as a pianist, Yehuda is a composer. His compositions – many of them written for piano – draw on Jewish musical traditions, which he first encountered while living in Israel.
