Noam Sheriff

Noam Sheriff was born in Tel-Aviv in 1935. He studied composition and conducting in Tel-Aviv (Paul Ben-Chaim), Berlin (Boris Blacher) and Salzburg (Igor Markevitch) and philosophy at Jerusalem University.

Following the premiere of his work, Festival Prelude, by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein in 1957 he won several prizes in composition and conducting competitions and received many commissions from, among others, the Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. His works are regularly performed in Israel and all over the world by artists such as Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo, Giulini, Steinberg and others. In his music one finds an original solution to the fusion between East and West, between the musical elements of the ancient Mediterranean countries and the musical culture of the West.

In 1973 he became the musical director of the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra which he conducted until 1982. From 1983 to 1986 he taught orchestration at the Cologne Musikhochschule and gave a conducting course at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. From 1989 to 1995 he was the musical director of the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon-LeZion which performed, under his baton, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 1994 and at other European festivals. Noam Sheriff regularly conducts his own work and other pieces of the orchestral repertory all over the world.

From 1963 to 1989 he taught composition and conducting in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. During those years he also directed many music festivals in Israel as well as various television and radio programs. Since 1990 Sheriff has been professor of composition and conducting at Tel-Aviv University's Rubin Academy of Music. In July 1998 he was elected to be the director of this Academy.

In January 2002 Mr. Sheriff was appointed music director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra under his leadership won the praise of the critics and audiences in 2002-3, his first season as its music director. He retained the post until July 2005 after being appointed as Music Director New Haifa Symphony Orchestra in April 2004. In July 2005, Maestro Sheriff introduced opera as a on-going part of the cities musical future with a semi-staged production of Don Giovanni.

In 2003, Noam Sheriff was awarded the prestigious EMET PRIZE, the highest recognition given in Israel to individuals for excellence in Science and Culture.

He died on 25th August 1918 in Netanja.

Noam Sheriff's works are published by Edition Peters