Zehavi Oded

Israeli composer Oded Zehavi’s music runs the gamut from atonality to neo-romanticism and has won international accolades from both audiences and critics for its appealing and emotional content. His tonal language draws from music traditions of the Middle East (Jewish and Arabic), European art song and contemporary techniques, exploring the fusion of western and ethnic musical heritages. In April 2020, Matthias Pintscher and the Cleveland Orchestra will give the world premiere of his concerto for piccolo and orchestra, commissioned by piccolo soloist Mary Kay Fink. A partial list of musicians who have performed Oded's music includes Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera Orchestra, David Shallon and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Antonio Pappano, Marek Janowsky, Leonard Slatkin and David Robertson. Soloists including Rivka Golani and Guy Braunstein have premiered his music in a number of the world's most prominent concert halls and festivals such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, BargeMusic, Banff Music Centre and the Musikverein. Oded is Professor of Music at Haifa University, where he founded the Department of Music in 1995. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and residencies, most recently the 2015 Schusterman Visiting Artist Residency (Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Institute of Music) as well as the 2014 Prime Minister's Prize for Composition. Oded serves as chairman of the Repertoire Committee for Elementary and Secondary Education at the Israel National Culture Division and is Music Director for the Israeli Music Festival, which presents a week-long series of free concerts featuring Israeli music from all genres throughout the country. His work as a tonmeister with Eshel Sound Studios has resulted in a number of commercial disc releases on the Helicon label as well as live concert broadcasts with the Rubinstein International Piano Competition and European cable companies such as Mezzo and Arte. He is also an avid arranger/composer of music for dance, theatre, feature film, documentaries and pop/rock.