Yotam was born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel. He started playing the guitar at the age of 10, playing some rock and blues guitar.
At the age of 15 Yotam was accepted to the prestigious "Alon" high school of the arts where he started dealing with jazz and studying with great teachers like Walter Blanding and Amit Golan. During his high school years Yotam won several local competitions and was marked as a very promising young guitarist.
After finishing high school successfully he went to NYC for a short period where he played a lot and took some lessons with jazz greats such as Barry Harris and Kurt Rosenwinkel.
When turned 18, Yotam had to serve duty for his country and joined the IDF (Israel's Army) where he served as a musical director, arranger and lead guitarist, he served for 3 years.
During his military service he started to gain recognition and to play with all the top Israeli jazz musicians.
When 21 Yotam Won the "Rimon's jazz player of the year" competition with his trio and he flew to Italy participate in the great Umbria Jazz Festival.
The same year Yotam has released his debut record on "Fresh Sound New Talent" recordscalled "The Arrival". The album was highly evaluated and received a lot of good reviews.
Right after that and during the next two years Yotam toured, gave concerts and played in big festivals all over Europe in countries like: Italy, Spain, England, France, Russia, Ukraine and Egypt.
In August of 2005 Yotam received a high scholarship to begin his studies at the New School for jazz and contemporary music and moved to New York City.
In New York Yotam began playing and performing a lot in all the city's great venues
With great artists like: James Moody, Curtis Fuller, Louis Hayes, Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess,James Spaulding, Pat Martino, Jorge Rossy, John Faddis, Greg Hutchinson, Antonio Hart, Mike LeDonne, Eric Alexander, Avishai Cohen, Kenny Barron, Ben Dixon, Peter Bernstein, to name a few.
In September of 2005 Yotam was selected as one of 10 top guitar players to participate in the semi finals of the luxurious Thelonious Monk guitar competition.
It is a pleasure to have you as my new MySpace friend… I find your MySpace page, your talent and your enthusiasm for music pleason’ to many… I welcome you’re other MySpace friends to visit my MySpace page that I’ve dedicated to my admiration of many talented guitar playing musicians of many styles… Stop by check it out and leave a comment if you like… Thanks Ken…
Hey Yotam, man you have really blossomed both as a player and a writer. So happy for you my friend! Can't wait to play with you again. Gotta go practice now.
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