Artur Gelbrun

Artur Gelbrun was born in Warsaw in 1913. In 1935 he graduated from the Warsaw State Conservatory in violin performance, and two years later he graduated from the same conservatory in orchestral conducting. In 1938 he studied conducting with Bernardino Molinari and Alfredo Casella at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1939 he fled to Switzerland – where he attended a conducting course under the guidance of Hermann Scherchen, and later played violin and viola in orchestras.

Gelbrun began studying composition with Willy Burkhard, one of the most prominent Swiss composers of the early 20th century. In 1949 he immigrated to Israel. He first lived in Jerusalem, and later moved to Tel-Aviv where he continued to focus on conducting and composing. In the 1950s, he went on two long tours in Europe – conducting European orchestras. He was one of the founders of the Israeli National Youth Orchestra and was its chief conductor from 1949 to 1956. He was also a regular guest conductor of the Kol Israel Symphony Orchestra from 1953 to 1949 and chief conductor of the Kibbutzim Orchestra from 1955 to 1950. In 1959, he began teaching at the Music Academy at Tel Aviv University.

Gelbrun passed away in 1985. During his lifetime, he composed dozens of pieces, winning the ACUM Prize three times for his works Concerto-Fantasy for flute, harp and string orchestra, and Meado – a pantomime ballet for orchestra and woodwind quintet. He also wrote music for dance and films.