JMI Forum for Israeli Music (FIM)

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Sunday 19 June, doors open 7.30pm
Middle Eastern Musical Magic
Vocal and Instrumental Repertoire from Jewish-Arabic Traditions
with Yair Dalal (Oud)
Yaniv d’Or (counter-tenor)
Erez Mounk (percussion)

Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh St, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
£15 Student concessions £10 from
From Spiro Ark,  020 7723 9991
Or email education@spiroark.org
presented by
The Jewish Music Institute, Forum for Israeli Music
With the
Department of Music (SOAS), Spiro Ark, Harif and Sephardi Voices UK
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University of London hosted International Conference:
Art Musics of Israel: Identities, Ideologies, Influences
Monday 28 March – Thursday 31 March 2011
Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1
Presented by the JMI Forum for Israeli Music in association with the Institute of Musical Research and the Department of Music at SOAS.

Programme and Reports

JMI Forum for Israeli Music
Director, Dr Malcolm Miller

While many Israeli performers are internationally recognized, the vast repertoire of music for concert and stage by Israeli composers is still unfamiliar in the UK and beyond. Unique to Israeli music is the particular symbiosis of East and West and the assimilation of elements from diverse traditions, the strands of Jewish traditions, Arab and Middle Eastern musics, with Western approaches.

The JMI Forum for Israeli Music was formed in 2003 in order to promote knowledge and appreciation of the music in Israel in all its guises, through a variety of activities including concerts and broadcasts, workshops and masterclasses, courses, conferences, seminars and lectures. An innovative project is to appoint a JMI Visiting Composer from Israel (click the link on the right) and to arrange for him to conduct workshops and masterclasses with students in music colleges in the UK.  The inaugural Visiting Composer from Israel was Menachem Wiesenberg who served from 2005 – 2007. Wiesenberg opened many doors and made a significant impact on London music colleges. The current incumbent is Michael Wolpe  (see link to articles on the right for Menachem Wiesenberg’s report on his tenure).

Patrons and officers
FIM is privileged to include on its International Advisory Board leading composers, performers and scholars from Israel and the UK, Professor Zvi Avni, Professor Jehoash Hirshberg, Professor Nelly Ben-Or, renowned violist Rivka Golani, composer Adam Gorb, Dr Alexander Knapp, Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music, SOAS University of London and Malcolm Singer, composer and Head of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School. FIM enjoys the support of Patrons Lady Collins and Ralph Kohn, FRAM.

In addition the Forum for Israeli Music aims to help create a resource library of scores of music by Israeli Composers. Many scores have been placed in the library of the Royal Academy of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College by our partners the Tzavta Dept of The Spiro Ark.   

Highlights of FIM’s activities
The highlight of FIM’s activities to date was the successful ‘Musical Dialogues of East and West’ at the South Bank Centre on 28 November 2004, a day of concerts and lectures which attracted capacity audiences to outstanding performances of music by ten Israeli composers including several premieres. To introduce the day, Malcolm Miller, FIM Director, chaired a panel discussion with the Israeli composers Yehezkel Braun and Menachem Wiesenberg (the FIM first appointed visiting Composer from Israel), the Arab-Israeli ‘oud player and composer George Samaan and the British composer Adam Gorb. Ruti Halvani, mezzo-soprano, FIM Education and Vocal Coordinator and Daphna Sadeh, Bassist, FIM World Music Coordinator, performed in the Purcell Room alongside leading musicians from Israel , Europe and America .
Review of Musical Dialogs of East and West

Click the links on the right to see the activities and read reviews of FIM activities.

To find out more
Other FIM concerts in 2004-5 included recitals of Israeli works at St James’s Piccadilly by the talented young violinist Daniel Cohen, postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, and the Israeli counter tenor Yaniv D’Or (both accompanied by Malcolm Miller), and an orchestral concert by the Blenheim Orchestra conducted by their founder Daniel Cohen. Future plans, including masterclasses on the performance of Israeli works at the Royal Academy of Music, will appear in the FIM newsletter. Email ‘m.miller AT jmi.org.uk’ to contact the Director of the JMI Forum for Israeli Music.

modified February 8, 2010