Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod began her musical education playing cello, piano and clarinet, and is currently serving as a Professor at the prestigious Master's Program for Vocal Contemporary Music and Performance Practice at Graz University. Her teaching "credo" is that Contemporary transcends temporal boundaries; it embodies a mindset and an approach she strives to infuse into every facet of music making, performance, and self development.
After winning the 1st prize at the Hilde Zadek Competition in Vienna she was invited to join the Young Ensemble of Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. Since then, Gan-ya has performed with the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Israeli Opera, the Neue Oper Wien, Staatsoper Oldenburg, Freiburg Theater, Glyndebourne Festival in England, Aix-en-Provence Festival in France, Bregenz Festival and Grafenegg Festival in Austria, Ravinia Festival in the US, Carnegie Hall in NYC, Musikverein in Vienna and more.
Since 2018 Gan-ya is also singing the Soprano solo part in the Symphonic tour of the known film composer Hans Zimmer and have performed for more than 80 concerts in the biggest arenas all across the world.
Some of the roles Gan-ya has performed include: Olympia (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Blonde and Konstanze (The abduction from the Serail), Madame Mao (Nixon in China), Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito), Almirena (Rinaldo), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Lucy (Die Dreigroschenoper), Thérèse (Les Mamelles de Tiresias), Nanetta (Falstaff), Elvira (L'italiana in Algeri), Bubikopf (Der Kaiser von Atlantis), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Thaïs (Thaïs), Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Despina (Cosi fan tutte), Michaëla (Carmen), Belinda (Dido & Aneas) and more.
Gan-ya is the 3rd prize winner of the Lotte Lenya Competition in NYC, a recipient of the Trustee Award and the Lys Simonette award from the Kurt Weill Foundation, a 2nd Prize Winner of the Güzin Gürel International Voice Competition, a recipient of numerous awards from Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Paul Ben-Haim Competition, the Aviv Competition (best performance of an Israeli piece), the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Ronen Foundation.