Yinam Leef
YINAM LEEF was born in 1953 in Jerusalem, where East meets West and the liturgical sounds of the three religions mix with one another when the wind changes its direction. Leef’s first published composition, Gilgulim for woodwind trio (1978), was a set of variations on a melody of the Jews of Iraq, pointing to an artistic path that combined local and universal musical elements. His catalogue ranges from small, intimate works for solo instruments to massive orchestral compositions. Leef has always found immense satisfaction in the artistic and human interaction between composer and performer and during the past two decades he concentrates mainly on composing chamber works.
His creative work received critical acclaim and won numerous awards. The New York Times hailed Leef’s Scherzos and Serenades and his “deft control of orchestral colors”, while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described his music as “attractive, colorful and richly expressive”. The Luxemburg Wort called his Visions of StoneCity “a most beautiful and unconventional work” and The Jerusalem Post simply labeled his Threads of Time and Distance “a masterpiece”. Leef is twice the recipient of the prestigious Prime Minister Prize for Israeli Composers (1993 and 2006), his Violin Concerto (1983) and Viola Concerto (1998) have won the ACUM Prizes and in 2010 he received the ACUM Life Achievement Award in Concert Music.
Leef was commissioned by foundations and music organizations such as the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, the Fels Fund, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Mannheim Society for New Music, Hambacher Musikfest, Kunst Forum Hellerau in Dresden, the Tel Aviv Foundation for Culture and Art, and by Israel’s leading orchestras and ensembles, which presented his music at highly acclaimed venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Vienna’s Muzikverein and Zurich Konzerthaus.
His compositions have enjoyed numerous performances in most European countries, USA and the Far East, and featured in many festivals worldwide, including the ISCM World Music Days in Oslo and Hong Kong, Intonations Festival Berlin, Poland’s Krakow Festival and Wratislavia Cantans in Wroclaw, Musical Spring in St. Petersburg, Chautauqua Festival in New York State, USA, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival and the Israel Festival, Jerusalem. His works have been recorded and broadcasted by radio stations across the world and released on cd’s by EMI Angel, Albany, IMI, JMC, MII, IMC and Champs Hill labels.
Leef is a Professor Emeritus at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where he taught from 1985 till his retirement and also served as the Academy’s President (2012-2021). He has seen great importance in his pedagogical work, encouraging young talents in composition to find their own individual voice. His own teachers were Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem; Richard Wernick, George Crumb and George Rochberg at the University of Pennsylvania and Luciano Berio at Tanglewood. Leef was Guest Composer at numerous European institutions including the Berlin Universitat Der Kunste, Munich Hochschule fur Musik und Theatre, University of Leipzig, Maastricht Konservatorium, Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, Music Academies of Krakow and Gdansk, National University of Music Bucharest, and at leading institutions in the USA including Stanford University, University of Cincinnati and the University of Pennsylvania.