Moving to Berlin after graduating from The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv University,and winning the Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize in 2007 had offered me the opportunity to continue my search after new musical ideas and ways of expression, this time from a quite new perspective. In some ways it also meant to start over, be open to new ideas, and to appreciate even more the chance to come in touch with great musicians and work together on new works.
This playlist is comprised of four pieces composed between 2008 and 2016.
Quest
for saxophone and piano –
is the first piece I have written in the new city, for a festival that was held in Israel. Through it I related to Berlin’s club scene and attempted to describe my excitement of being in this new place.
Whom My Soul Loveth
for cello solo and mixed choir –
was composed for an international choir festival in Germany and sung by the Aachener Kammerchor together with cellist Walter Mengler and conductor Martin te Laak, who so beautifully related together to the Hebrew biblical text of the Song of Songs: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, but I found him not.”
Nedudim (Wanderings)
for mandolin solo and string orchestra –
explores the physical and emotional states of exile and constant nomadic existence. The piece reveals parallel developments of two basic musical elements, creating a journey through time and within a geographical space. I composed this work for mandolinist Alon Sariel and London’s Orchestra of the City.
River of Silence
for soprano, theorbo and percussion –
is the latest point in my journey, where I have had the joy of working with soprano Tehila Nini Goldstein and Sferraina Ensemble for the Festival de Chaillol in France. It is composed for a poetic and philosophical text by Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese-American poet of the last century, who explores the notions of life and death.
