Israeli pianist, composer, vocalist and educator Guy Mintus is equally at home whether he’s sharing the stage with jazz legends, composes for classical orchestras, collaborates with masters of traditional music, working with kids or guesting as a soloist with Ska-Punk band Streetlight Manifesto with whom he performed at a sold-out Beacon Theater. Coming from a mixed heritage of Iraqi, Moroccan & Polish Jews, his music is a meeting point between different rivers of inspiration flowing freely into each other. A trained concert pianist with the energy of a rock-star and a jazz musician’s sense of adventure who’s unafraid to throw into the mix his native middle-eastern scales and rhythms.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, Guy launched a regular online show in which he takes requests from audience members, raffles and re-imagines live the selected songs in his own unique way; incorporating his voice, a loop station and a bunch of toy instruments surrounding him. Thus far, the show have reached over half a million views from audiences around the globe.
Guy’s awards include the “Leonard Bernstein Award” by ASCAP and the Bernstein Family Foundation and the Prix du Public at the Montreux Jazz Festival’s solo piano competition. His debut record, “A Home in Between” has been selected as DownBeat Magazine’s Editor’s Pick while his sophomore release, “Connecting the Dots”, has been celebrated in concerts throughout the US, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Turkey and Kazakhstan including a New York CD release concert that has been recommended by the New York Times.
Guy’s latest record, A Gershwin Playground, was recently released on the prestigious label ENJA Records (Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner among others). The album provides a fresh, modern and very personal take on the music of Jewish-American musical giant while receiving international support from both critics and audiences alike.
Guy has been commissioned to compose works by the American Composers Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Jerusalem East & West Orchestra. He has performed Rhapsody in Blue with the Bavarian Philharmonic, composed music for Miracle of Miracles, the new documentary about Fiddler on the Roof, by HBO director Max Lewkowicz and premiered his first piano concerto with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Guy is an endorsed artist by Yamaha Pianos.
Guy is also a passionate educator having taught workshops in numerous situations, from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid to mid-western US universities to Refugee Camps around Europe. Most recently he released a semi-viral musical short film called “Can You Tell the Difference?”, shot at various Jewish-Arab primary schools in Israel that support the idea of coexistence.
