Yinam Leef

Born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1953.Grew up in a cultural melting pot, where east meets west, old and new co-exist and local and universal aesthetics are apparent at a change of a glance. While firmly rooted in western musical tradition, he has combined in his music certain elements which are particular to middle-eastern sound enviroment: melodic fragments, rythmic or temporal aspects of music or the relation to time and form. Yinam is the recipient of the 1993 Prime-Minister Prize for composers and the 1992 ACUM prize for publication encouragment for his vioin concerto. He was commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation of Harvard and his works have been performed by all major Israeli orchestras and have enjoyed numerous performances in festivals worldwide, including the ISCM World Music Days in Hong Kong and Oslo. Yinams’ composition teachers were Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy, Richard Wernick, George Crumb and George Rochberg at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his doctorate, and Luciano Berio in Tanglewood. He is senior lecturer at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music & Dance, and was chaiman of the composition-conducting-theory department in 1995-1997.
yleef@jamd.ac.il