Israeli Music > JMI Forum for Israeli Music (FIM)

Jewish Music Institute SOAS
University of London
Director: Dr Malcolm Miller

Library of Music by Israeli Composers
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 and lectures. An innovative project is to appoint a ‘JMI FIM Visiting Composer from Israel ’ and encourage workshops and masterclasses with students in music colleges in the UK . In addition the Forum for Israeli Music aims to form a resource Library of Israeli Music, (the first 100 scores of which have already been placed in the library of the Royal Academy of Music. It also aims to encourage combined events with other cultural communities from the Middle East to promote intercultural dialogue (already evidenced in the Forum for Middle Eastern Music in association with the Department of Music at SOAS).

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.

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

Visiting Composer from Israel
Menachem Wiesenberg, prolific composer, pianist and arranger, was appointed inaugural ‘JMI FIM Visiting Israeli Composer’, and has delivered lectures and masterclasses at schools, universities and colleges including the Guildhall School of Music, The Royal Northern College, The Yehudi Menuhin School and SOAS.
Wiesenberg’s music has been and will be featured in many concerts and JMI has commissioned a Double Violin Concerto for Klezmer and Classical Violin from him scheduled for performance in 2007.

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 12/02/2006