Marina Geller

Marina Geller (b. 1963) is a composer, musicologist, and lecturer specializing in theoretical musical disciplines. In 1986, she graduated with honors from the Academy of Music in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), earning a master’s degree in musicology. From 1987 to 1991, alongside her work as a consultant at the Uzbekistan Composers Union and at the Uspensky School of Music, she continued studying composition under Prof. Felix Yanov-Yanovsky. After immigrating to Israel in 1991, she pursued further studies in composition at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem under Prof. Mark Kopytman.

In 2011, Geller received a doctorate in composition from Bar-Ilan University, studying with Prof. Gideon Levinson and Prof. Betty Olivero. That same year, a CD featuring her works for strings was recorded with the support of Israel’s Ministry of Culture and the Composers Union. In 2012, Geller was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers and later the ACUM Prize for her concert work A Cello Offering. In 2013, her symphonic work The Armed Man was commissioned and performed by the Jerusalem Broadcasting Authority Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Frederic Chazlan. She held two composer recital concerts in 2009 and 2013, and in 2014, her Concerto for Cello and Orchestra was performed by cellist Sofia Falkovich and the Beer Sheva Sinfonietta under the baton of Doron Solomon. In 2018, Geller received another ACUM Prize for her concert piece Gyre of Time for mandolin, strings, and percussion.

Her scholarly work includes an article on the composer Sofia Gubaidulina, published in 2014, alongside other essays and writings. Geller’s compositions have been performed by leading orchestras and musicians in Israel and internationally, with broadcasts on the “Voice of the Music” radio program.

She has taught music theory, composition, and literature at the Beer-Sheva Conservatory and is a lecturer at the Kaye Academic College of Education.