Born in Haifa, Israel, Yaïr Benaïm began playing the violin at the age of 3. He worked with Ilona Feher and Hagaï Schacham, and confirmed his vocation with Yigal Tuneh. Super soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Youth Orchestra from 1991 to 1994, he decided to pursue a career as a soloist.
In 1997, he met Gérard Poulet in Paris, who was to become his teacher. This decisive encounter prompted him to move to Paris to develop his career.
In 2000, he founded the Quatuor Benaïm, with whom he won major international prizes (SPEDIDAM prize at the F.N.A.P.E.C. competition in Paris, third prize ARD-Munich in 2004, Ministry of Culture prize at the Bordeaux international competition and the Mozarteum and Salzburg City prize in 2007). From 2000 to 2013, the Quatuor Benaïm toured extensively in France, Germany, Israel, Portugal and Austria.
Following his studies in orchestral conducting, he is regularly invited to conduct the orchestras Note et Bien, Ostinato and the Montargis Festival Orchestra in France, as well as the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra in Israel, and has just created a new orchestra, the Open Chamber Orchestra, in the Paris region.
A holder of the Certificat d’Aptitude, he teaches chamber music at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional (CRR) in Rueil-Malmaison.
