Bar-Am Benjamin

Composer Benjamin Bar-Am was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, to parents of Latvian-Russian origin. He immigrated to Palestine in 1936, studied composition with Paul Ben-Haim and furthered his studies in 1950/51 with Arthur Honegger at the Ecole Normale in Paris. Later he studied musicology at Tel Aviv University. Since 1959 he has been music critic of the Jerusalem Post daily. Between 1960 and 1974 he served as general secretary of the Israel Composers’ League and between 1974 and 1977 as its chairman. Since 1973 Bar-Am has lectured at the Department of Musicology, Tel Aviv University, and was head of the Israeli Music Archive. He also teached Jewish liturgical music and music history at the Lewinsky Teachers’ College.

He composed mainly vocal music. 

From Beit Hatfutsot Museum Archive