Moshe Rasiuk

Moshe Rasiuk was born in Haifa, 1954. Graduate of the Israeli Academy of Music and the Musicology Department, Tel Aviv University, where he completed his PhD.” Yehezkel Braun and the Influence of Gregorian Chant on His Work”. In 1982 his work “Kadim” won the first prize in a competition for young composers, initiated by the Israeli Sinfonietta, Beer Sheva, directed by Mendi Rodan. Since then the piece gained its performances by Israel’s leading orchestras, among them the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, including a concert tour in Australia. In 1998, celebrating Israel’s 50th anniversary, “Kadim” was played in a festive concert in Finland, conducted by Osmo Vänskä, and later on recorded for the WDR German radio. Rasiuk’s “Avoda Zara” received the ACUM prize in 1991, and since then was programmed by such orchestras as the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the “Century” Orchestra in Osaka, Japan, the IPO and the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Russia. Among Moshe Rasiuk’s vocal pieces are “The Market Street”, for choir, performed by the Cameran Singers conducted by Avner Itai and later on by the BBC singers in London, “Kikar Sdom” for choir and percussion, recipient of the Engel prize for original Israeli work (1991), “Dry Bones”,commissioned by the 16th Zimriya (World assembly of choirs in Israel),”Prophet at the Gate” for tenor solo, mixed choir and orchestra, “Morning winds”, for children’s choir, and others. Moshe Rasiuk is the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Composers, 1995. Recently his new Opera, “Se questo è un uomo”, text by Primo Levi, was played by “Cecilia Ensemble” and a chamber orchestra.