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Menachem Wiesenberg sums up his three years (2004 – 2007) as the First Visiting Israeli Composer chosen by JMI.

Three years ago, after having lost contact for many years with my dear student – Ruti Halvani, she called me out of the blue asking if I would like to be in contact with the British organisation called the Jewish Music Institute (JMI). I knew almost nothing about the JMI and I had heard its name only vaguely from another pupil Noa Lachman who used to work for the organisation (and maybe still does from time to time).

Ruti told me that JMI is considering nominating a visiting Israeli Composer to help him promote his music and expose to the Jewish and British audience in general a leading figure representing Israeli Art Music.

The content of the position was not so clearly defined but I was happy and thankful to the Committee who chose me because I looked at it as a great opportunity for me personally and for the Israeli Classical Music scene in general to get an international recognition and acceptance.

On my first visit to London (November 2004),I was invited to the South Bank, where I participated in a panel discussing Jewish, Israeli and Arabic music. Some arrangements of mine were performed in one of the concerts during this day of celebrating these different kinds of music.

It was on this same day that Sophie Solomon came along, asking me if I will be interested in writing a Double Concerto representing the two great Violin traditions, the Classical one and the Klezmer one. She didn't know how right she was in approaching me because luckily enough my father was a fantastic Klezmer who played the Violin(among many other instruments) .As a child I was brought up engulfed with the sounds of Klezmer Music along with my Classical education and Jazz  playing.

The culmination of my ‘service’ as a Visiting Composer was writing this piece and attending the two premiere performances recently (March 2007) in London and at the Yehudi  Menuhin School of Music. I hope this piece will have a long and lasting life, and will help Sophie and other Klezmer players spread the word around the world.

During the last three years I've made some wonderful contacts with very important composers who serve as Heads of Composition Departments in leading Institutions in the country. I've known and became friend of Dr. Robert Saxton and his wife Tessa, Malcolm Singer, Julian Philips, Adam Gorb and William Mival. I gave lectures at The Oxford University Faculty of Music and the Royal College in London. I gave Master Classes in Composition at the Guildhall (several times) and the Royal Northern College in Manchester and I gave lectures and coached chamber music (several times) at the Yehudi  Menuhin School of Music where I feel connected in particular.

Both at the Guildhall and the Royal Northern College there were concerts dedicated to my music and performed by the Institution's students. I would like to mention also the Cellist and Impresario Sagi Hartov who was instrumental in  bringing over (through my contacts with the I.M.I.) a Library of Israeli Music to the Royal Academy of Music, and we're working of enlarging this project to other major music colleges.

I was trying also to make contacts with some English Orchestras and Ensembles but unfortunately until now it hasn't yet come to fruition. I do think that a major effort should be made in the future to try and interest such musical bodies in performing Israeli Music. In this sense I didn't have too much of a success but I'm optimistic about the future.

I must say that wherever I was presenting my music to the students, I got very very enthusiastic responses, and it really strengthened my belief that Israeli Music has a message that can be grasped by audiences all over the world. We just need to find a way to present it to the regular non Jewish audience and people will love it.

I would like to thank Malcolm Miller who is a devoted supporter of Israeli Music and a real expert of the scene, and of course I would like to send my warmest greetings to Geraldine Auerbach who is moving everything forward. She is the real locomotive who drives the trains forward and without her nothing would have happened.

Menachem Wiesenberg, April 2007.