Boaz Tarsi

Born in 1958 in Kibbutz Hohtrim. After his military service in the Artillery Corps, he began his studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music in the departments of theory and vocal performance. He won scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation; within the events of “Young Artist Week” concert, his composition “Theme and Variations for Piano” was performed at the Recanati Hall in the Tel Aviv Museum and broadcast on Kol HaMusika. In the year he completed his studies at the Academy, his work “Biq’ah Recitative and Dance” won the Israeli Sinfonietta Beer Sheva Prize and was performed in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and halls in kibbutzim and broadcast on Kol HaMusika. He was also a member of the vocal quintet “The Jerusalem Madrigal Singers,” with whom he performed throughout the country.

After completing his studies, he was accepted to Cornell University, where he completed his doctoral studies in 1990. Within the framework of a research fellowship, he began researching the music of the Ashkenazi prayer music (nusah hatfulla) at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York.  Upon receiving his doctorate, he received a position at the same institution and continued both research and composition. Today, he is a Full Professor. 

He has published a long series of articles and presented at international academic conferences on the subject of the theory of Ashkenazi prayer music. Currently, he also conducts research within at Jewish Music Research Center in Jerusalem.

Among his important works, in addition to “Biq’ah Recitative and Dance” and “Theme and Variations for piano,” which were written and perYork; while still in Israel, are: “Concert Aria ” for soprano and orchestra, which was recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic [ERM Media, distributed by the Naxos record company]; “Song, Dance and Chorale Fantasy” for piano, performed at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center in New York and at the Cristofori Hall in Amsterdam; “Mediterranean Melodies” for flute, violin, cello, and piano, performed by the “Musica Mondana” ensemble in Philadelphia, “The Fantastics” in New York, at a Holocaust Memorial concert at “The Kitchen” alternative music hall in New York, at the Michelstädter Musiknacht summer festival in Michelstadt, Germany, and in a concert of contemporary Israeli music at Merkin Hall in New York; “Teruah” for double-bass, shofar, and piano, commissioned by the Chautauqua Festival, performed by bassist Gary Karr in New York; “From the Song of Songs” for soprano, baritone, flute, and piano at the 92nd Street Y in New York, at the Jewish Museum in Philadelphia, and at the Arts Festival in San Diego; “Five Songs about Love” in the “Adonai Foundation” concert series in New York, and his work “Five Movements for Orchestra” performed by the Israeli Sinfonietta Beer Sheva as part of the Israeli Music Celebration Week in 2018.

He served as the musical director, arranger, and conductor in the theatrical performance piece “Beethoven-Bratzlav-Beethoven,” created and directed by Yossi Yizraeli, which was presented in English in New York and subsequently in its original Hebrew at the 2014 Israel Festival. 

He served as a coach and consultant in the recording project of the Milken Archive, within which he worked in the USA and Europe with bodies such as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Gerard Schwarz, the BBC Singers, the Vienna Boys Choir, the SNEF Choir in Berlin, and various ensembles in London.

Among the prizes and grants he won are the ERM Prize for living composers, a research grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, “Meet the Composer” (USA), a research grant from the Littauer Foundation, the Lasdon Prize for “applying a Jewish idea to a work of art,” the Israel Weisser Memorial Fund Prize for excellence in the field of Jewish prayer music, and scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. 

In addition to composing and research, he has appeared as a singer in opera productions, oratorios, concerts, recitals, and cantorial performances in Israel, the United States, Amsterdam, and London.

Since 2018, he has begun publishing poetry; his poems have been published in several dozen literary journals in Israel, and in 2021, his book of poetry “One Hand Began Writing” (Yad Ahat Hehela Roshemet) was published by Pardes Publishing. His works are published by Transcontinental Music and the Israeli Music Institute.