Daniel Galay

Daniel Galay gained his reputation as composer with the performance in many countries of his orchestral works, music for theater, ballet and chamber music. His large works are included in the programs of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (“Rafael” Symphony No. 1 and Piano Concerto), Poznan and Wroclaw Filharmony (Symphony No. 2, "Kind un Keyt", Klezmer Rhapsody), Haifa Symphony Orchestra (Klezmer Tunes) Hungarian Virtuosi Orchestra of Budapest (“Wenn zwei sich lieben” for Violin and String Orchestra), Szolnok Symphony Orchestra (Cello Concerto), Mendoza Symphony Orchestra (Overture), Lublin Filharmonia, Rosario Chamber Orchestra (In Memoriam), Moldova National Filharmonica, Mayo Chamber Orchestra (Tres Cortes) and String Ensemble from the Israel Chamber Orchestra (Flute Concerto), "La Voix de la Memoire", Oratorio, under the baton of the well-known conductors David Robertson, Zsolt Nagy, Geoffrey Styles, Barbara Schubert, Yozsef Bali, Jose Maria F. Junior, Piotr Wijatkowski, Luis Gorelik, Fernando Ciraolo, Fernando Losano, Amos Talmon, Gheorghe Mustea, Gal Alterowicz and Zsolt Serei.

As pianist, in solo performance or with chamber ensembles, his appearances are marked by fruitful interaction between composer, performer and audience, as he makes the music of our time a vibrant esthetic and emotional experience.
His works were performed in the USA, Canada, Argentina, Israel, Italy, Holland, France, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Czech. As DUO GALAY, with his daughter Racheli, cellist, he did tours that were acclaimed by audiences and critic as well.
Galay recorded his chamber music for radio stations and his works are in the repertoire of such distinguished performers as Zagreb String Quartet, Israeli Quartet for Contemporary Music, Danel Quatuor, Israel Flute Quartet, Woodwind Quintet of ONBA (Opera National Bordeaux Aquitaine) and Trio Strawinsky (France) Duo Morini- Porta (Italy) Fred Dosek and Herut Israeli (piano), Miklos Szenthelyi , Haya Livni and Elihau Shulman (violin), Emanuel Gruber (cello), Israel Rand (tenor) Hadassa Ben-Hayim (soprano), Lior Eitan (flute and piccolo), Beny Sluchin (trombon), Daniel Kienzy (saxofon), Dominique Descamps (oboe) Michael Gorodetsky, Michele Gingras, Noga ben-Azar and Alen Greenfeld (clarinet). His works are played at prestigious Festivals like Novart-Bordeaux, Judische Julturtage Berlin, Nuovo Spazi Musicali Roma, Festival of Jewish Culture Paris, Bruno Schulz, Ukraina, Cisenau Festival for Contemporary Music,Moldova, Dresden Juddische Musik- und Theaterwoche.


As chairman of ACOUSTIC 7-11, forum for contemporary music, he produced concerts in cooperation with Cultural Centers and Embassies presenting music from Britain, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Norway and Sweden. He was awarded with scholarships, grants and commissions of works by the Illinois Arts Council, British Council, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Israel-America Foundation, Tel-Aviv Foundation for the Arts, Beyt Shalom Aleichem, Beyt Morseshet UTG, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Absorption. His scores are included in the catalogues of IMI, IMC, OR-TAV (Israel), Dorn (USA) and Edipan (Italy).

He was jury member of the Chamber Music contest at the Conservatoire National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine.

Galay was born in 1945 in Argentina and immigrated to Israel in 1965.
His Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago (1979) accomplished his musical studies and previous degrees in Piano, Theory and Composition from the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires and the Tel-Aviv University, Rubin Music Academy.

A large number of his works were composed to Yiddish and Hebrew texts of such writers Sutskever, Markish, Uri Tzvi Grinberg, Zelda, Amichay, Tzvi Kanar to folklore legends and his own texts. In particular is worth to mention “Itche Heystir”, a chamber opera, composed to his original Yiddish Libretto and "Haym ben Khaye" to a traditional story adapted by the composer, that was premiered in Tel-Aviv and in Dresden.

His widespread Klezmer Tunes, Book 1 and 2 (OR-TAV publisher, in chamber and orchestral versions) testify his interest and commitment to Jewish and World Music and were released in CD's with the clarinetist Michele Gingras. These books belong to a Collection of 18 books of the composer's original Klezmer creations. Some of them were performed also in China.

Galay developed improvisation techniques and gave Master Classes and concerts including improvisation with students and professionals participation (USA, France, Poland and Israel). He co-authored a book devoted Orchestral Improvisation. He was awarded the Manger Preis and the first Sarah Gorbi Preis for a whole body of works devoted to Yiddish Culture.
galaydaniel1@gmail.com
For Daniel Galay's official website