Yinam Leef

Title: Night Light
Commission: 1990
Completed: 1996
Instrumentation: chamber orchestra
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Yinam Leef (born in Jerusalem in 1953) is one of the most prominent and active composers in Israel today. He grew up in a cultural melting pot, where East meets West, old and new coexist. He studied piano and violin and his childhood musical influences include classical music, jazz, and the unique mixture of Jewish prayers, the chant of the Moazzin and the Old City’s church bells.

Leef’s catalogue ranges from small, intimate solo pieces to massive orchestral compositions. His creative work has received critical acclaim and won numerous awards. The New York Times hailed his “deft control of orchestral colors,” while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described his music as “attractive, colorful and richly expressive.” The Luxemburg Wort called his Visions of StoneCity “a most beautiful and unconventional work” and the Jerusalem Post simply labeled his Threads of Time and Distance “a masterpiece.” Both his Violin and Viola Concerti have received the Acum Prizes and his haunting vocal work A Place of Fire received a Citation of Honor from the City of Haifa. Leef is twice the recipient of the Prime Minister Prize for Israeli Composers (1993 and 2006).