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August, 2015
August 4: I'm very excited to be part of "Esoteric Duos," a CD project produced by JC Jones and Yoni Kretschmer featuring various improvised duets. JC is a longtime hero of mine, and its an honor to join a lineup of improvisers that includes Barre Phillps, Mark Dresser, Pascal Niggenkemper, and many other interesting musicians.
Esoteric Duos July, 2015
July 24: I really enjoyed presenting at the Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain Conference at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at the Royal Musical Association's Music and Philosophy Study Group at King's College London. During my stay in London, I also joined the AHRC research project, "Scrambled Messages: The Telegraphic Imaginary 1857-1900," for an event marking the 150th anniversary of the failure of the 1865 trans-Atlantic cable. We spent a large part of the day at UCL's Institute of Making handling various unusual substances and building goofy projects. It was a blast. You can see a short video clip about the day here, and read more about it here.
May, 2015
May 18: It was a lot of fun to graduate today at Yale. I was especially honored to receive the humanities division's Theron Rockwell Field Prize for my dissertation. A huge thanks to everyone who made these wonderful past six years possible! Receiving the award from Dean Cooley April, 2015
April 14: I'll be giving a talk on "Attention in Scottish Enlightenment Music Theory" at the Society of Music Theory's annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, and on "Hector Berlioz's Neurophysiological Imagination" at the annual conference of the American Musicological Society in Louisville, Kentucky. March, 2015
March 22: I'll be giving talks this Summer at the Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group, King's College London, the Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain Conference in Glasgow, and the Westfield Forte / Piano Festival at Cornell.
February, 2015
February 2: I am incredibly honored to be joining the Columbia Society of Fellows next year as a Mellon Research Fellow and lecturer in the Department of Music.
January, 2015
January 30: My review of John Savarese's article, "Ossian's Folk Psychology," has been published in Vol. 7 (2) of the Journal of Literature and Science in the Yale Graduate School Newsletter.
January 28: My dissertation has been featured in the Yale Graduate School Newsletter.
January 23: I'll be giving talks on "Cognition in Scottish Common Sense Music Theory, 1770-1786," at both the 13th Annual Meeting of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic at Princeton in March, and at the 30th Annual Meeting, New England Conference of Music Theorists at Boston University in April.
December, 2014
December 9: My article, "'The Expressive Organ Within Us:' Ether, Ethereality, and Early Romantic Ideas about Music and the Nerves," is now out in 19th-Century Music. Special thanks to my wonderful advisor, Pat McCreless, and committee members Brian Kane and Paola Bertucci, for all their help and input.
November, 2014
November 4: I really enjoyed presenting at the Yale History of Medicine Program's monthly Holmes Workshop. Unfortunately I broke my foot right before the talk, which meant that I couldn't travel to the History of Science Society's Annual Meeting in Chicago a few days later to give my paper, "'The Expressive Organ Within Us:' Ether, Ethereality, and Early Romantic Ideas about Music and the Nerves." Luckily, my friend and colleague, historian of science Courtney Thompson, stepped in to save the day, and delivered my talk at the session, "Music, Acoustics, and Rhythm in the Sciences."
October, 2014
October 13: I had a great time presenting the third chapter of my dissertation "Hector Berlioz's Neurophysiological Imagination," at the Yale Sound Studies Working Group's colloquium at the Whitney Humanities Center. It was really wonderful to brainstorm with so many interdisciplinary scholars.
July, 2014
July 15: My article “'The Expressive Organ Within Us': Ether, Ethereality, and Early Romantic Ideas about Music and the Nerves” will be published in Vol. 38:2 of 19th-Century Music. June, 2014
June 25: My recording review, “Cute Boy, Charming Girl: Children's Songs of the Modern Hebrew Nation (1882-1948)” has been published in volume 45/2 of Asian Music. May, 2014
May 31: Its been an exciting month, with a bunch of different concerts of various musical styles. My piece, Castle, a collaboration with choreographer Rachel Erdos, was performed at the
Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel-Aviv, while my solo violin piece, Iltur was performed by the wonderful Yael Barolsky at the
ContComp Festival at the University of Haifa. I also joined my friends at Ensemble Tafillalt in a concert of Jewish music as part of a conference sponsored by Ben-Gurion University. Most exciting of all, perhaps, was stepping in for the incomparable Moshe Aharonov, violinist of the Meitar Ensemble, for the duration of the "Contemporary Encounters" master course with Ivan Fedele. Learning nine brand-new pieces in three days on violin and viola was an exhilarating experience, and I can't speak highly enough of the composers and conductors who joined us.
Contemporary Encounters II April, 2014
April 17: I'm excited to be on a forthcoming CD released by JC Jones and the Kadima Collective. JC is one of the most inspiring people I've met in my life, and he has been integral the Israeli improvised music scene for as long as any of us can remember.
JC Jones March, 2014
March 31: I'm so happy to be writing again for my friends at the Meitar Ensemble, this time its a commission for a piece featuring the viola. The premiere will be on July 27, 2015, and I'll post more info soon.
March 13: I'm very excited to be giving a talk on my dissertation research at the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences's annual meeting in Brussels, Belgium this July. January, 2014
January 12: I had a wonderful time participating in the Meitar Ensemble's "Contemporary Encounters 2014" Festival at the Center for New Music at the Israel Music Conservatory. Guest composer Philippe Leroux was an inspiring and helpful teacher, as were my friends in Meitar, who agreed to read no less than four different versions of my piece in four days, led by the talented young conductor Ofer Dallal. A video recording of their performance of "Impossible Machines" appears here below.
Meitar performing Impossible Machines November, 2013
November 23: I was so happy with the premiere of my new piece, Reading the Coffee Grounds a setting of a text Israeli poet David Avidan for electronics, piano, violin, trumpet and trombone. The wonderful musicians of the Israel Contemporary Ensemble did a fabulous job, led masterfully by conductor Yuval Zorn. The evening itself was the closing concert of the annual Teiva Marathon Festival and was dedicated to Avidan in its entirety. It was a very special and moving occasion, with lots of excellent music.
A video of the performance is here below: "Kriah BeKafe" (text by David Avidan)
November 20: I had a wonderful time presenting my music at Haifa University through the Israel Composer's League's "Encounters with Composers" series. Special thanks to Yael Barolsky, who played Iltur so beautifully, to the Haifa University Music Department, and to Shai Cohen and Hilat Ben-Kennaz of the ICL for inviting me. Below a clip featuring a bit of my lecture (in Hebrew) overlaid with sounds from Yael's performance.
Promo Clip, Israel Composer's League October, 2013
October 11: Playing with Michael Veal's Armillary Sphere at the Underground Lounge was a blast. Great musicians and music. You can check out my solo over Andrew Hill's Dusk here With Michael Veal's Armillary Sphere
October 6: I had a wonderful time at the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie in Rostock. I heard a lot of interesting talks at the incredibly well-organized event, and giving my paper in German was a fun challenge. August, 2013
August 20: I've been commissioned for a new piece for ensemble, to be premiered at the Teiva Festival in Jaffo in November. Special thanks to Dan Yuhas for this exciting opportunity! July, 2013
July 27: I had a great time joining the Meitar Ensemble for the last concert of the season together with Israeli rock star Eran Zur and guests Shlomi Shaban and Rona Kenan. Playing in the ancient Roman amphitheater at Shuni was a very special experience, and Eran's energy and amazing stage presence made the evening unforgettable With Eran Zur and Meitar at Shuni June, 2013
June 17: My article, "From Trinidad to Cyberspace: Reconsidering Toch's Geographical Fugue" has been published in issue 9/2 of the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fuer Musiktheorie. Special thanks to Dan Harrison for mentoring me on this project, which originated as a presentation for his fugue class.
June 15: A huge thank you to the wonderful Meitar Ensemble for their beautiful premiere of my new piece, "Impossible Machines." It is a remarkable privilege to write for such excellent musicians, and the evening was a really special experience. You can listen to the performance here. Right after the premiere of "Impossible Machines" May, 2013
May 13: A nice review of "Growing Carrots in a Concrete Floor," in His Voice, a Czech music magazine. Reviewer Jan Faix describes our album as: "an exceptionally aristocratic experience in spite of its non-aristocratic name." April, 2013
April 19: I feel so honored to be selected as a Whiting Fellow for 2013-2014.
Special thanks to my wonderful advisor, Pat McCreless, and to Brian Kane and Sarah Weiss for all their help! I am incredibly lucky to have such a supportive community here at Yale.
April 2: My collaboration with the great Ayelet Lerman and Wade Matthews, "Growing Carrots in a Concrete Floor," is out today on the Aural Terrains Label. Check out a sample of our music here. Growing Carrots in a Concrete Floor" March, 2013
March 13: The wonderful cellist Yonatan Niv has just released his debut CD, entitled "Writer's Block" (Machsom Ktiva). It's a fantastic album featuring original and cover versions of great songs, with Yoni on cello and vocals. I contributed to a few tracks, together with some other interesting musicians in our circle. Check out his version of 'Ne me quitte pas' on youtube here. Yonatan Niv, "Machsom Ktiva" February, 2013
February 11: A nice review by Guy Taneh of Israel rock star Eran Zur's collaboration with the Meitar Ensemble, who gives a shout out to my arrangement here
February 7: Israel rock star Eran Zur's collaboration with the Meitar Ensemble has just been released on CD. Its a truly wonderful project, and I was thrilled to be part of it: I play throughout the album and also contributed an arrangement of Parparei Ta'atua. Eran Zur and the Meitar Ensemble January, 2013
January 12: Playing the Winter Jazz Fest in NYC with Jason Lindner's Breeding Ground superband was a real blast! Amazing music and musicians. You can read about the project at the NPR jazz blog here, and an interview with Jason ahead of the concert here. Audio from our forthcoming CD can be heard here. With Breeding Ground at the Winter Jazz Fest
January 1-7: I had a great time participating in the Meitar Ensemble's first Contemporary Encounters masterclass and workshops with Philippe Leroux. Working with Leroux was really inspiring, and I was also very happy to have the first movement of my piece, Imaginary Machines workshopped by the Meitar Ensemble. They'll premiere the work on June 15 of this year in their regular concert series. In Tel-Aviv with Ziv Cojocaru, Christian Maerkl, Philippe Leroux, and Tomer Hod.
December, 2012
December 30: It was a privilege to be part of the memorial concert for composer Michael Barolsky (1947-2009) at the Teiva yesterday. His daughter, the great violinist Yael Barolsky, organized a moving evening of his works, which are outstanding. I was particularly touched by Boris Berman's performance of Barolsky's Notturno for piano and electronics, which you can listen to here.
December 20: I had a great time working in the studio together with Nori Jacoby and Tamir Muskat on Israeli ethnic singer Victoria Hanna's forthcoming CD. We used a bunch of cool instruments from my growing collection, including a Saitenspiel, Schossgeige, and Guzhla, as well as of course violin, viola and mandolin. Victoria's CD features texts from the Kabbalah and Old Testament, and she has one of the most interesting voices I've ever encountered. I'll post more information on the CD release soon. For now, you can read more about Victoria, and listen to her here. Victoria Hanna
December 15: I've received a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) degree from Yale University. November, 2012
November 19: Working with choreographer Rachel Erdos as part of the "Composer Choreographer Project" at the Teiva has been a phenomenal experience. Our piece, Castle, premieres in Tel-Aviv on November 30th, at the Teiva Marathon Festival, which will also feature other new works by many interesting artists. A big thanks to our amazing dancer, Yoav Grinberg. October, 2012
October 15: Special Thanks to Andrea Hallam for playing my viola piece, Adom, at the 30th Asian Composers League Conference & Festival in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. September, 2012
September 10: I am excited to be working on a new commission together with choreographer Rachel Erdos, as part of the "Composer Choreographer Project" at the Teiva in Jaffo. August, 2012
August 12: It was lovely to join the Meitar Ensemble in their residency at the Samos Young Artists Festival for a week in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen! June, 2012
June 21: My piece, Adom for solo viola has been selected for the young composers competition of the 30th Asian Composers League Conference & Festival. Special thanks to Ayal, Dan, Hilat and the folks at the ICL for this opportunity!
June 10: It was great fun to join the
Israel Contemporary Players in their final concert of the season in a program of Birtwistle, Francesconi, Sciarrino and Steinberg at the Tel-Aviv Museum. Our soloists were Nic Hodges (piano) and the great Yael Barolsky (violin), with Ilan Volkov conducting. A fantastic group of musicians and a lot of wonderful music. May, 2012
May 17: I've advanced to candidacy at Yale, and am really excited to be working with Pat McCreless as my advisor on a dissertation exploring the relationship between nerves and music at the end of the eighteenth-century through the early Romantic period.
May 12: Participating in the Music, Cognition, Technology, Society conference at Cornell University was very exciting. The conference featured some really amazing scholars and musicians, and I met interesting people from across a number of music-related fields.
April, 2012
April 30: It was incredible fun to join the Meitar Ensemble in the studio over the past few days in recording their upcoming joint CD release with Israeli Indie rocker Eran Zur. Eran has a hypnotic voice and some pretty incredible songs. If you don't know his music, check out his website, here.
April 2: Orrie Golan, the legendary director of the Kfar Saba Recorders Ensemble, has commissioned me for a new piece for her ensemble. I'm honored and excited to write for them! March, 2012
March 8: The final concert of TrumpetIn, the all-trumpet workshop organized by Na'ama Golan in cooperation with the Jerusalem Music Center and the Tel-Aviv Academy of Music, was a wonderful experience. Na'ama commissioned me for a trumpet trio, Neimot, which was premiered by two young trumpeters, Eyal Weinberger and Ofri Abramov, with tutor William Forman jumping in to save the day at the last moment when the third trumpeter unfortunately fell ill. I learned a lot about composing for the trumpet over the past three days, and heard a lot of really great new music. I've posted the live recording from the concert here.
March 7: Chicago-based composer Sarah J. Ritch has just released an album of her works featuring my performance of a violin and electronics piece called "400 g" on the independent net label "Pan y Rosas Discos." Sarah's a very interesting sound artist and composer, and you can learn more about her, and download the album for free right here:
March 6: My paper "From Trinidad to Cyberspace: Toch's Geographical Fugue, Reconsidered " has been accepted at the Music, Cognition, Technology, Society Conference at Cornell University in May 2012.
February, 2012
February 21: It was great fun joining Ensemble Tafillalt on their German tour. We played at the "Sounds of Israel" Festival, produced by the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie on Feb. 19, followed by a concert at the
Lichtburgform under the auspices of the Jewish Community of Berlin. Both truly wonderful experiences.
January, 2012
January 26: My article "Wagnerpunk: A Steampunk Reading of Patrice Chereau's Staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen (1976)" is now available online as part of the Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies special issue on Spectacles and Things - Visual and Material Culture and/in Neo-Victorianism, edited by Nadine Boehm and Susanne Gruss.
November, 2011
November 28: Violinist Sivann Maayani Zelikoff's debut solo CD "The Polyphonic Violin" has just been released on the FONS label, and it includes Secret Ballad, a piece I wrote especially for Sivann. Please visit this link to learn more about the CD, about Sivann, and about the amazing polyphonic possibilities of violin repertoire.
November 2: The Meitar Ensemble has commissioned me for a quintet for their 2012-2013 concert season. I'm very excited about the opportunity to write for them!
October, 2011
October 15: My article "Wagnerpunk: A Steampunk Reading of Patrice Chereau's Staging of Der Ring des Nibelungen (1976)" will be forthcoming in volume 4:2 of the Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies.
September, 2011
September 30: After taking my comprehensive exams at Yale in August, I've moved to Heidelberg for this academic year. The town itself is gorgeous...
July, 2011
July 24: I joined the Jewish music band Tafillalt for their performance at the Lviv Klezfest in Lviv, Ukraine. The Klezfest is part of attempts by the Hesed Arye foundation to revive Jewish tradition in Eastern Europe, and they are doing really important work. Videos of the performance can be found here.
July 13: Participating in the Center for Creation, Content and Technology's Summer School at the University of Amsterdam was a really wonderful experience. I learned so much about different psychological, biological and neuroscience-based approaches to empathy and communication, and met many interesting students and lecturers from around the world.
June, 2011
June 2: I've received a Master of Arts (MA) degree from Yale University. Its been an exciting and fun two years here so far, I look forward to the next few! May, 2011
May 5: Just finished recording an album with Breeding Ground, Jason Lindner's 11-piece band. I'll post more details on the forthcoming album soon.
May 1: I'll be spending the next academic year as an exchange student at the University of Heidelberg through the CT-Baden-Wuerttemberg Exchange program. April, 2011
April 19: I've been selected to participate in Amsterdam University's Center for Creation, Content and Technology's Summer School, "Reading Mediated Minds: Empathy with Persons and Characters in Media and Art Works."
April 1: Music journalist Ben Walzer quoted me in a recent feature on the great Israeli bass player, oudist and composer Omer Avital. You can read the complete article here, and I strongly recommend checking out Omer's music, too!
March, 2011
March 30: It was a real privilege to give my paper, "Arrangements of Shirei Eretz Israel as Expressions of the Shifting Politics of Israeli Identity," at the Institute of Music Research's conference on Israeli Music at the SOAS in London, a marvelous four-day event centered on both current and historical developments in Jewish Art Music. In addition, I sat in with the Jewish Music band Tafillalt at their concert in North London, which was great fun.
At SOAS
March 19: Sivann Maayani-Zelikoff's premiere of my new piece, Secret Ballad, was an wonderful experience - Sivann put in a lot of inspired work on both learning the piece, and collaborating with me on the compositional process.
Fenruary, 2011
February 12: The past month saw my official debut as an academic: I gave a paper on "Arrangements of Shirei Eretz Israel as Expressions of the Shifting Politics of Israeli Identity," at the Yale Music Department's Works-in-Progress Series, and gave another paper, "Putting the Cart(er) before the Horse" at the Stony Brook Graduate Music Symposium. Thanks to the talented folks at Stony Brook for organizing an incredibly fun event!
Cart(er)ing it up at Stony Brook
December, 2010
December 20: My paper, "Putting the Cart(er) before the Horse" was accepted at the Stony Brook Graduate Music Symposium, which will take place on February 11-12, 2011. An abstract is available here. The paper, which I wrote as a final project in Prof. Eve Poudrier's Elliott Carter Seminar, is an empirical study of whether we can hear metric modulations in different contexts.
November, 2010
November 30: I've been awarded a travel grant by the Yale Graduate Student Assembly Travel Fund ahead of my talk at the "Art Musics of Israel: Identities, Ideologies, Influences" conference, taking place between Monday 28 March - Thursday 31 March 2011 at the University of London. I'll be discussing "Arrangements of Shirei Eretz Israel as Expressions of the Shifting Politics of Israeli Identity," the abstract is available here.
October, 2010
October 3: Jason Lindner's Breeding Ground got rave reviews in the New York Cultural Examiner after our show last month. Critic Layla MacCoran writes "Breeding Ground is a supergroup version of a big band that features Now vs. Now (Jason Lindner, Panagiotis Andreou, Mark Guiliana- drums) at its core, vocalist Jeff Taylor, horns (John Beaty- sax; Rafi Malkiel- trombone; Jorge Continentino- soprano/baritone sax; flute) and an unexpected but pleasantly surprising string quartet. The Iridium set started with the immediate rich sound of the introduction to "Sparkle Wolf". The strings (Mazz Swift-violin, Curtis Stewart-violin, Carmel Raz-viola, Will Martina-cello) reminded this examiner of ribbons in the wind. The rippling was flexible and sturdy simultaneously." September, 2010
September 17: David Sait's "Sixty Musicians Interpret Sixty Seconds" CD Project, in which I took part, has been reviewed in Downtown Music Gallery's September Newsletter:.
September 15: I've been awarded an ASCAPPlus Award by the American Society of Authors and Publishers.
September 9: Violinist Sivann Maayani Zelikoff has commissioned me for a solo violin piece for her Polyphonic Violin Project, which will debut at the Jerusalem Music Center in February, and will be released on CD.
August, 2010
August 27: The "Sixty Interpretations of Sixty Seconds by Sixty Solo Instruments" CD Project, in which I took part, has just been released on Apprise Records. I was invited to contribute to this record by Canadian musician David Sait, who organized a top-notch group of musicians from around the world. The CD offers a fascinating take on time, improvisation, and stylistic differences. You can learn more about the project, listen to me and 59 other musicians, and / or buy a CD on their website here.
August 6: I've been invited to give a paper at the "Art Musics of Israel: Identities, Ideologies, Influences" conference, taking place between Monday 28 March - Thursday 31 March 2011 at the University of London. I'll be discussing "Arrangements of Shirei Eretz Israel as Expressions of the Shifting Politics of Israeli Identity," the abstract is available here. This paper grew out of experiences I had playing in Omer Avital and Israel Borochov's Debka Fantastia Project back in 2008.
July, 2010
July 20: My analysis of Shulamit Ran's String Quartet no. 1, "Shulamit Ran: In Tune with the Audience and the Performer," has been published in Israeli Music Institute's journal. You can read the article in Hebrew here, but the original English version should appear sometime this year, as the IMI's website is undergoing an upgrade.
Special thanks to Uri Golumb, for his fantastic translation and editorial help!
June, 2010
June 20: Misha Piatigorsky's new album, Paris Troika has received rave reviews in online magazines All About Jazz and Jazz Chicago. I collaborated with Misha on the strings in four tracks - great fun and excellent music. You can read the reviews here and here, and please check out Paris Troika's website, too.
May, 2010
May 15: My piece, Merhavim, commissioned by Ron Merhavi, has been reviewed in Vol 33 no. 3 of Bass World, the journal of the International Society of Bassists.
You can read the complete review here, listen to Ron's recording here, and learn more about his CD project here.
May 13: Unfortunately I couldn't attend the performance of my string quartets 2 and 3 by members of the Kammerakademie Potsdam, but found this review of the concert in the Maerkische Allgemeine Zeitung. Matthias Mueller writes:
Die beiden Streichquartette von Carmel Raz entsprachen mehr dem Lebensgefuehl der Menschen von heute. Im zweiten Quartett lotet sie klangliche Moeglichkeiten aus vom elastischen Abprallen des Bogens auf der Seite, dem Einsatz der Bogenstange bis zum Flageolett - so klingt eben ein technisches Auftragswerk des Chicagoer Buren-Quartetts. In ihrer Nr. 3, als "Programmmusik" bezeichnet, setzte sich Carmel Raz mit dem Lungenkrebstod ihres Vaters Tzvi Raz auseinander. Schwer gehender Atem, Herzschlagmotive, auch Weinen praegen das kurze komprimierte Opus... ein hoch interessantes Konzert, das der Tradition und der Moderne gleichfalls verbunden war."
You can read the complete review here, and read more about Matan Dagan and the Kammerakademie Potsdamer here.
April, 2010
April 20: The Kammerakademie Potsdam's performance of two of my string quartets has been postponed to May 12. The volcano prevented me from attending this week's performance, and I really hope to come to Berlin in time for the next.
April 2: The Jersey City Independent interviewed me for an article about Con Vivo Jersey City, an organization of which I am proud to be an artistic advisory board member. The article can be found here. Go Amelia and the rest of Con Vivo!
March, 2010
March 7: Omaha Area Youth Philharmonic's world premiere of my commissioned piece, Oayo, was a great experience. The orchestra is truly fantastic: incredibly motivated and talented young people playing under the expert direction of Maestra Aviva Segall, a driving force within the Omaha area new music scene. A recording of the first performance can be heard here. February, 2010
February 28: Paris Troika has released their first CD, which features me on violin and viola. Paris Troika is the project of Misha Piatigorsky, Buster Hemphill and Chris Wabish: three fun and original jazz musicians taking on classic rock. You can hear me on four tracks, or on their website here. January, 2010
January 11: Interval Recordings has released a CD featuring my violin sounds: electronic artist Ido Govrin's Moraine, which he describes as "six electro-acoustic pieces partly created by the analysis-re-synthesis process of acoustic instruments (Cello and Violin) and partly by a pure computer generated process of sound, Moraine is composed of exquisite sound qualities consisting of restrained gestures of simultaneous assembling and disassembling processes, slow though diligent creation holds a promise for total collapse, destruction, and as such, fills the listener with sweet sadness and longing." Please visit the Interval Recordings website for more information.
December, 2009
December 24: I had a wonderful time giving a masterclass on music for violin and electronics at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Meeting Nori Jacoby's group of talented students at the Bar Ilan music department was great fun. November, 2009
November 30: I've been awarded a Meet the Composer's Creative Connections grant ahead of the performances of my orchestra piece Oayo by the Omaha Area Youth Orchestra in March 2010. September, 2009
September 17: I've been awarded an ASCAPPlus Award by the American Society of Authors and Publishers.
September 10: It's been a while since I've updated this section of my website - after a wonderful summer which included many exciting musical experiences, I started grad school a week ago.
June, 2009
June 2: I've been awarded a Meet the Composer's Creative Connections grant ahead of the performances of my third string quartet by Con Vivo in July. May, 2009
May 5: I joined members of the NYC-based Red Light New Music Ensemble in a concert of new music at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage in Washington D.C. The program was a lot of fun, and working with the composer-directors and other performers was a pleasure. A video of our concert can be found on the Kennedy Center website here.
May 2: I just finished a three night run at the Jazz Gallery as part of Jason Lindner's Breeding Ground project. This was one of the best musical experiences of my life! Joining fellow string players Mazz Swift, Curtis Stewart, Will Martina, as well as percussionist Mark Giuliana, bass player and vocalist Panagiotis Andreau, vocalist Jeff Taylor, wind players Rafi Malkiel, John Beaty and Jorge Continentino was a rare privilege. I can't wait to play with these amazing musicians again. April, 2009
April 30: Richard Grooms of Improviser Magazine reviews Karl Siegfried's CD release "Blue Rhizome," describing this the record as:
April 20: I've added a new Research section to this website, currently accessible through the tab at the top of each page. March, 2009
March 27: Bassist Ron Merhavi's debut solo CD "One on One: Double Bass's Many Faces" was released earlier this month, and it includes Merhavim, a piece I wrote especially for this project. Please visit this link to learn more about the CD, about Ron and the other composers involved.
March 3: Another big change in my life - I've been accepted to the PhD program in Music Theory at Yale University. After spending the last three years performing and composing, I was starting to really miss academics. The music department at Yale has an unbelievable roster of scholars and musicians, and I can't wait to start this exciting program. February, 2009
February 3:The Carmel Quartet (not relatives of mine! we just share the same name) gave the world premiere of my Third String Quartet: Programmmusik live on Israeli Radio's Etnachta Program. This piece was commissioned by Raz Binyamini of the Israel Chamber Music Center for the Carmel Quartet - special thanks to Yoel Greenberg for the punning involved, and to the Rabinovitch Foundation, for making the commission possible. January, 2009
December, 2008
December 7: The Omaha Area Youth Orchestra reading of my new orchestra piece OAYO was a wonderful experience. The young musicians, under the baton of Maestra Aviva Segall, did an outstanding job.
December 4: The Israel Contemporary String Quartet tour of Holland and Belgium was great fun! Playing with Boris Malkovsky and Ora Boason-Horev was a pleasure. November, 2008
November 8: The Rabinovitch Foundation has supported the commissioning of my third string quartet by the Chamber Music Center at the Israel Music Conservatory for the Carmel Quartet October, 2008
October 31: Cadence magazine reviewed Karl Seigfried's Blue Rhizome Project with the New Quartet, mentioning that: "Raz is also impressive on pieces like the understated 'A Distant Beauty.'"
October 14: I've taken up mandolin playing - which is a wonderful addition to my improv options. A few links to Mandolin / Cello jams with cellist Yoed Nir posted below.
October 1: A big change in my personal life - I've moved to New York City, a city I've always loved. I'll be maintaining a lot of my performance activities in Israel, Europe and Chicago as well - I'll keep you posted! September, 2008
August 7: The International Ensemble Modern Academy residence at the Klangspuren Festival in Austria and Italy was a really wonderful experience - and performing Steve Reich's Violin Phase was an exhilarating challenge. August, 2008
August 7: The Millennium Chamber Players Canada tour was great fun! Our performance at the Jusqu' aux Oreilles Festival in Montreal was a success, special thanks to flutist Kim Sopata for her beautiful interpretation of my solo flute piece Iola. July, 2008
July 21: Ron Merhavi recorded "Merhavim" for Solo Contrabass at the Jerusalem Music Center "Mishkenot Sha'ananim."
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