Contemporary witnesses

Aharon Shefi, trumpet player, music educator, composer, studied from 1950 to 1952 at the Midrasha, the music teachers' seminar that Kestenberg had founded and directed until 1952. He took courses in music history and music aesthetics from Kestenberg.

In his interview as in his "recollections" he sketches a vivid portrait of Kestenberg, especially during the latter's last year as director of the Midrasha. He tells about his entrance examination with Kestenberg and Käthe Jacob in the cramped facilities of the Midrasha, which occupied rooms above the grammar school when it was first opened. Kestenberg's teaching style still remains alive in his memory, as does a visit from the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, a friend of Kestenberg's.

Under Kestenberg's motto "education to humanity with and through music", Shefi founded the Givatayim Konservatorium near Tel Aviv in 1954, together with the violinist Giora Bernstein. Under his direction, it expanded into a music school of the highest level between 1954 and 1993. Today, it educates some 250 music students between the ages of 6 and 18.