Gilad Hochman

Gilad Hochman is the youngest to win the Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers and is the recipient of the S&R Washington Award for 2017. 

His music has received praising reviews by The New York Times, The BBC, France 24 and Deutschlandradio Kultur, among others, and has been described as “written with a true artist’s hand” (Ora Binur, Ma’ariv) and as “shedding new light on customary expressions in music” (Noam Ben-Zeev, Ha’aretz).

Hochman was born in Herzliya, Israel, in 1982, and is currently residing in Berlin, Germany. He started studying the piano at the age of six and composing at nine years old. At age 18 he graduated from the Herzliya Music Conservatory, studying under composer Dr. Ilya Heifets and pianist Dr. Mark Shaviner. Later he graduated with honors from the Buchman-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, where he had studied under composer Gil Shohat as well as musicology and advanced theoretical and practical subjects under some of Israel’s leading senior musicians.

Today, Mr. Hochman’s oeuvre includes a wide range of works for orchestras, choirs, chamber ensembles and soloists, which are regularly commissioned and performed in Israel, the United States, Russia and throughout Europe. Among other venues, Hochman’s compositions were played at the Berlin Philharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Carnegie Hall (New York), the Moscow Philharmonic Hall, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and at St James’s Piccadilly in London. Hochman’s work has also been performed in retrospective concerts in Germany and in numerous concert series, music festivals and music academies around the world, by the finest musicians, and was recorded on six albums.

Gilad Hochman’s musical language is varied and constantly searching. It draws its power, among others, from the European classical music traditions and from Jewish and ethnic music. Within itself, it seeks to create a balanced rational and emotional expression as well as a merger of tradition and innovation. Stylistically, his music ranges freely between modal, tonal and various contemporary techniques.

His work is supported by different foundations, including the Austrian Cultural Forum, Goethe-Institut, America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund, Ursula Lachnit-Fixson Stiftung, Yehoshua Rabinovich Arts Foundation, Anni Eisler-Lehmann-Stiftung, Zfunot Tarbut Foundation and Ronen Arts Fund and private funds.

www.giladhochman.com