Zubin Mehta - conductor
Heihal Ha’tarbut Hall, Israel (2002)
Sean Edwards - conductor
The 2004 ISCM Music Festival, Croatia (2004)
This piece is a particularly personal musical statement. As the title suggests, the work is introversive and builds to an explosion of inner conflict. It does not seek to express overtly intellectual formalisms. It does not wave the flag of a political agenda. Rather, it lives in its own domain – expressing inner turmoil but never attempting to rationalize, justify or symbolize it in any way but as purely musical abstraction.
Geoff Nuttall - violin
Barry Shiffman - violin
Lesley Robertson - viola
Marina Hoover - cello
Campbell Hall, Stanford University, USA (2004)
Lisa Bielawa - voice
Karla Lemon - conductor
Campbell Hall, Stanford University, USA (2003)
This piece is an attempt to capture the essence of a visual scene - the autumn. Of particular interest
are elements such as the wind, the chill in the air, the structure of the trees, and the colors of the leaves. I have chosen to represent the impression of autumn in the pointillist style - the mottled color of the leaves translating easily into strokes of a brush. In the visual arts, the pointillist technique constructs a coherent image from a collection of pure dots of color. Each of the dots is devoid of an internal structure or substantial meaning by itself. It is only through the juxtaposition of these elements that local collections of points acquire a more subtle hue, a complex structure, and a meaningful image. The form of the piece intends to explore a musical analogy to this technique. I wish to capture not only the final product - the painting - but the process of rendering it in the pointillist style. In other words, I attempt to reveal, in time, the evolution of this visual self-assembly as directed by the artist, and so observe points becoming lines; lines becoming forms; forms becoming images. In the dramatization of the visual creative process I have cast the voices in particular roles. The vocalist is treated equally to the strings and represents the artist himself. The artist’s intensions are executed by tools - the brushes - represented by the Celli section. The melodic lines played by the Celli represent the process of the dots becoming lines and foreshadow the image revealed later in the piece. The rest of the string sections represent the evolution of dots into form, eventually revealing the painting. The duality of the subject (autumn) and the technique (pointillism) as described in the piece generates an ambiguity of interpretation. One listener might hear the brush on the canvas, while another might hear the leaves on the trees. Neither interpretation dominates, but rather shifts with binary stability for each listener individually.
Hadas Fabrikant - violin
Miki Katz - cello
Eyal Ziliuk - piano
Biennale Festival Tempus Fugit, Israel (2000)
movement V movement VI movement VII movement VIII
Ofra Yitzhaki - piano
Pacific Art League, USA (2005)
A thought is an autobiographical diary and collection of individual and independent thoughts, emotions or expression. In spite of the short duration and concise form of each one of the movements, these miniatures
hint intense and emotional turmoil of the artist. This series of thoughts emphasizes the process rather than the final goal; therefore it is an infinitive work in progress that leaves each movement unanswered and open-ended.
Vania Lecuit - violin
Beatrice Rauchs - piano
2000 ISCM International Music Festival, Luxemourg (2000)
The piece is inspired by a visit to Beograd, Yugoslavia (1998), and expresses personal feelings and impressions from the city and its people. The title refers to the beautiful ‘Kalemegdan’ castle which stands at the juncture between two rivers – the Sava & the Danube, where the two rivers join together into one stream. The Piano & Violin which represent the two rivers are presented at first as two separated and independent entities which eventually unite in harmony, complementing one other.
Jimmy Brieri - piano
Ottawa Music Festival, Canada (2007)
Roger Admiral - piano
Banff Music Festival, Canada (2007)
The piece is inspired by a visit to Beograd, Yugoslavia (1998), and expresses personal feelings and impressions from the city and its people. The title refers to the beautiful ‘Kalemegdan’ castle which stands at the juncture between two rivers – the Sava & the Danube, where the two rivers join together into one stream. The piano and violin which represent the two rivers are presented at first as two separated and independent entities which eventually unite in harmony, complementing one other.
Joachim Striep - clarinet
Burkart Zeller - cello
Martin von der Heydt - piano
Campbell Recital Hall, USA (2003)
Self-portrait is a personal and introspective work, combining two distinct artistic domains in which I was simultaneously working on – music and painting. It is the realization of a watercolor collage painting in the abstract musical world of sound by means of introducing voices in layers - thereby creating a sense of depth in the texture, and by translating the blank-white-canvas into silence or the frame into reoccurring musical events. I relate to the narrative of life as a journey, thereby attempting to capture the realization of life as a process rather than the search for a final destination. I emphasize the importance of the process dynamics by leaving each section of the composition and the composition itself open-ended; consistently avoiding the sense of arrival.
Banff Music Festival, Canada (2007)
Reflections I, II - Purple (for Viola Solo)
Guy Ben-Ziony - viola
Ha’teiva Hall, Israel (2007)
Hadas Fabrikant, Tali Goldberg - violin
Galia Hai Bells - viola
Hilla Epstein - cello
Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem, Israel (2003)
This piece is a musical representation of a conversation between four independent individuals – players. I observe the interaction and group dynamic that evolves between the participants during a causal conversation. These aspects are represented in musical terms by means of texture and orchestration. Like in a conversation, occasionally ones speech is interrupted by another, comments are being made or an expressed idea by one individual is continued and completed by another. Conversations is constructed of four continuously played sections. The first section opens with a causal chat-like character, which later evolves into whisper and gossip in the second section. The third one returns to a casual and calm conversation, only to develop this time into an unresolved argument of disagreement and conflict in the fourth and final section. While the causal chats are represented by independent melodies in the different voices, the players lose their individual identity and unite to chaos both in the gossip - whispery section as well as in the final argument.
Mark Menzies - conductor
Alea II Music Festival, Dinkelspiel Auditorium at Stanford University, USA (2003)
The piece follows the tragic events of September 11 in 2001. The expression of confusion, shock, horror and chaos are represented both in the musical elements as well as in the form of the piece. The beginning is marked with force, violence and agitation. Repeated cluster chords express shock, an inability to grasp the enormous tragedy and represent the towers collapse in a din. Chaotic bursts in between these repeated cluster chords hint at what is soon to strike: the interruption of the events of September 11 and the termination of life. The second section of the piece speaks about the victims as individuals. These individuals become a crowd of thousands of lives, sharing a fatal and tragic fate. Each of the 13 instruments carries a personal and independent voice. Slowly, the voices build up in layers - one on top of the other - to create an organized cluster representing the loss of one’s individual identity to become part of a massive, collective tragedy. The third section entitled Above & Beyond describes the life beyond human existence, suggested by breezy, airy and unclear sounds. In writing this piece I have turned to music where I found it beyond words to express my feelings. At this point, I had realized that even in the language of music and abstraction I failed to find the means of expressing such a great tragedy. The fourth and most climactic section of the piece is characterized by silence; what is beyond words and music is represented by a whistle tone above the quite breaths of human existence.
Pacific Art League, USA (2004)
Talia Ilan - conductor
Jerusalem Music Centre, Israel (2000)