Noam Sivan, classical music composer

Noam Sivan

Biography

Noam Sivan is a versatile musician, combining composition, piano performance, live improvisation, and conducting. He has appeared as composer and pianist in the United States, Canada, England, France, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, the Philippines, and throughout his native Israel. Over 40 of his compositions have been performed, including operas, scores for ballet and dance, vocal music, orchestral and chamber works. As a pianist, his repertoire includes concertos from Mozart - with newly composed cadenzas - to Mr. Sivan's own Piano Concerto, which he premiered in the double role of soloist & conductor. He also performed the Asian premiere of the Viktor Ullmann Piano Concerto with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. One of the young pioneers in the revival of improvisation in classical music today, he is currently leading improvisation workshops that he founded at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and at Mannes College in New York City.

Noam Sivan's music includes the opera Fruits of Folia premiered by the Mannes Opera, Hommage à Ravel premiered by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the song-cycle The Cabin of Loneliness which in its version for chorus and string orchestra was premiered by Moran Choir and Tel-Aviv Soloists, and a commissioned String Sextet from the Choreographic Institute of the New York City Ballet. His works have also been performed by Canandaigua LakeMusic Festival, Kefar-Blum Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Jerusalem Music Center, conductor Joseph Colaneri, clarinetist Charles Neidich, pianist Yael Weiss, violinist Tanja Becker-Bender, clarinetist Anthony McGill, saxophonist Noah Getz, mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin, pianist Maya Hartman, Thalamus Vocal Ensemble, Sluchin Duo, Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble, New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Momenta Quartet, Mannes Orchestra, Link Ensemble, Summertrios, Jerusalem Saxophone Quartet, CUNY Chamber Orchestra, and many others; have been broadcast on Israeli television and radio, WQXR, Minnesota Public Radio, WKSU, Michigan NPR, Cincinnati Classical Radio, Classical Air, WKAR, WGUC, WFMT, WQED, WOSU, WBHM, and other stations; and have been recorded for Koch International Classics. His innovative transcription for solo violin of the Liszt Sonata in B minor is published by Carl Fischer.

Noam Sivan's activities in the field of live improvisation have been praised and supported by musicians such as Robert Levin, Richard Goode, Charles Neidich, and Carl Schachter; and have been noted by the press - Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Juilliard Journal, Daily Messenger, Rochester City Newspaper, Haaretz, Colbo, and others. His concert improvisations range from solo piano improvisations to conducting orchestral improvisations and duo improvisations with colleagues. In December 2009 he produced the first-ever all-improvisation concert at the Curtis Institute, as well as the Fourth Annual Improvisation Concert at Mannes College. In 2010 he will lead an orchestral improvisation at the University of New Mexico Annual Composers' Symposium, in addition to other improvisation concerts and workshops in New York, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, and Jerusalem. He has also directed Interactive Improvisation Evenings with audience participation in the U.S. and in Israel.

Since his solo piano debut with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Noam Sivan has performed extensively. His performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations encored by an original improvisation on the piece was broadcast on Israeli TV and described as "the biggest surprise of the festival. Noam Sivan presented the variations confidently and fluently, which led to a moving experience… His improvisation on the Goldberg Variations reflected the excitement this feat creates in the listener" (Ha'aretz, Israel). His thematic recital programs have also included The Piano Etude from Chopin to Ligeti, Ravel and Water Imagery, and The Schoenberg Piano Fragments, while always bringing a fresh point of view to known classics, as in his performance of the Chopin Preludes linked by improvised transitions.

Born in Haifa, Israel, in 1978, Noam Sivan is currently on the faculties of Mannes College in New York and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and a doctoral fellow at the Juilliard School. He has also given lectures, master classes and workshops at State University of New York Stony-Brook, City University of New York Graduate Center, Queens College, University of California Los Angeles, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, the International Schoenberg Institute, Bar-Ilan University, Jerusalem Music Academy, Hochstein Music School, and many others. His main teachers have been Milton Babbitt, Carl Schachter, Edward Aldwell, Robert Cuckson, Menachem Zur, Vadim Monastirsky, and Manuela Sivan. His studies over the years were supported by the America Israel Cultural Foundation.

(from noamsivan.com)


Composer Title Date Action
Noam Sivan Perpetuum Mobile 01/09/2009 Play Add to playlist