Michael Wolpe

Michael Wolpe, a composer and educator, was born in Tel Aviv in 1960 and has been a member of Kibbutz Sde Boker since 1982. He studied composition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and at Cambridge University in the UK. Wolpe completed his PhD in musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focusing on the British symphony in the latter half of the 20th century.

Wolpe is a professor at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and teaches at several institutions, including the Israel High School for Sciences and Arts (YASA) and the High School for Environmental Education in Sde Boker. He also teaches at the Mitzpe Ramon College of Music. For six years, he served as the artistic director of the Israeli Music Festival until 2012.

In recognition of his contributions, Wolpe has received several prestigious awards: the ACUM Award for Lifetime Achievement (2009), the Rosenblum Award for the Performing Arts from the City of Tel Aviv (2010), and the Prime Minister’s Award for Composers, which he won twice (2014). He was also awarded the Yitzhak Navon Prize in 2018 for his role in cultivating Jewish and Israeli culture.

Wolpe served as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra in Ashdod from 2015 to 2016. He continues to lead the “Sounds in the Desert” festival, which he founded in 1998, dedicated to showcasing Israeli music. Additionally, he is the artistic director of the “Pianos” festival at the Jerusalem Theater, which he co-founded in 2013.

His compositions span a wide range of genres, including chamber, orchestral, and choral music, as well as popular songs and piano works. Much of his work is deeply connected to his involvement in the kibbutz community, though many of his pieces remain unpublished and are shared primarily through online platforms.