Ram Da-Oz

Ram Da-oz was born in Germany in 1929 and settled in Palestine with his parents in 1934. He started studying music in Tel-Aviv. In 1948, While still a student, he joined the Israel Defense Forces in the War of Independence, was wounded and lost his eyesight. Continuing his musical studies, he took up composition with Prof. A. Hajos and in 1953, graduated from the Israel Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv. In 1954, he settled in Haifa together with his wife Sarai, who also transcribed his pieces from Braille to standard notation. Since then, he has been composing freely, while making his living as a piano tuner.

Da-Oz has written Israeli art music, employing modern styles and techniques such as dodecaphonic atonality and free tonality, in addition to traditional styles, with Sephardic melodies being used in some of his works, as well as Israeli folk songs. In the 50’s his pieces were mainly in a Neo-classical style, until in 1960 he began to employ the twelve-tone technique; later still, he moved to a freer approach, while still using tone-rows. His oeuvre includes works for piano (many of which are especially written for piano students of various grades), songs, chamber music, and works for orchestra.

Died in 2021.