Yitzhak Yedid


Yitzhak Yedid is an Israeli-Australian composer of contemporary classical music. He is also a pianist and an educator.
The recipient of numerous awards, Yedid is an Azrieli Prize Laureate in Jewish Music, a Laureate of the, and a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow. His compositional style has been characterised as "eclectic, multicultural, and deeply personal," blending elements of Jewish cantor music, classical European traditions, jazz and avant-garde experimentation. He has been hailed as one of the most original composers on the international music scene today.
Interfaith dialogue and Cross-cultural integration are central to Yedid's artistic practice. Yedid's work is a reflection of his deep interest in Middle Eastern culture, ancient rituals, the aesthetics of classical and liturgical Arabic music, and non-Western music performance practices.
Yitzhak Yedid specializes in performing Judaeo-Sephardic and Middle Eastern sacred music in concert piano recitals.
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Biography

Yitzhak Yedid was born in Jerusalem to a Jewish family of Syrian and Iraqi descent. His initial formative musical experiences included attending liturgical services at his local synagogue where he imbibed the sounds and rhythms of the Syrian-Jewish Baqashot tradition.
While the young Yitzhak immersed himself in music rooted in the Jewish-Arabic tradition and the rendition of traditional Maqamat-based songs, his mother was insistent on exposing him to western classical music and a western instrument. At age seven, he embarked on piano lessons with a private instructor. As his teenage years unfolded, his musical focus shifted to jazz piano, and by his twentieth year, he initiated performances of his original compositions with his own new-music ensemble.
Yitzhak Yedid's musical aesthetics find their roots in the music he immersed himself in during his formative years, particularly in the Aleppo's tradition of chanting Piyyutim and Baqashot. His musical journey is also inspired by piano music and improvisation. In his compositions, Yedid seamlessly integrates various elements, including energies and dynamics, while introducing a distinctive aesthetic that departs from the conventional norms of classical stage traditions. This innovative approach adds a nuanced, and at times even provocative, dimension to his musical creations.
Yedid studied at the Rubin Academy of Music with Vyacheslav Ganelin and the New England Conservatory in Boston with Ran Blake and Paul Bley in 1997 and 1998. After moving to Australia, he gained a PhD from Monash University in 2012, publishing Methods of Integrating Elements of Arabic Music and Arabic-Influenced Jewish Music into Contemporary Western Classical Music.

Career

In 1999 Yedid released his first album Full Moon Fantasy for the Musa label. This led to an invitation to perform in Scandinavia as the guest of the pianist Michael Smith, and to a joint recital in Sweden with the pianist Roland Pontinen. In 2001, Yedid's second recording, Inner Outcry, was released, also for Musa. Yedid was commissioned to compose the suite Tachanun for a festival in Vienna, Austria, in 2002. Tachanun has been performed many times in Israel including at the Kfar Blum Chamber Music Festival.
Between 1999-2009, Yedid crafted a collection of seven large-scale works for various instrumentations, always featuring himself on the piano. These compositions combined fully notated music with free improvisation, including maqamat, and composed for a selection of individual players. The works were released on a series of eight solo albums on the record label Challenge Records. However, Yedid refuses to publish the hand-written scores of these works.
Myth of the Cave was commissioned by German record label Between the Lines. It was released in 2002. The five-movement piece has been performed at festivals in Germany and Austria, at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and at the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival. It is based on Plato's allegory of the cave, about cave dwellers imprisoned in near-darkness since birth whose sense of reality is distorted. One of them escapes to the outside world, reports on what he has seen and is put to death for his revelations.
In 2002, he joined Israeli jazz saxophonist Abatte Barihun to form the duo Ras Deshen. They recorded their maiden album in September 2002, which featured a blend of Ethiopian music and Free improvisation jazz.
In 2003 Yedid composed Passions and Prayers – Sextet in homage to Jerusalem for Between the Lines. It is a technically complex and conceptually melancholy composition that premiered at the 2004 Israel Festival. The CD was released in August 2005.
Reflections upon Six Images was commissioned by a festival in Vienna Austria in 2004. The music depicts the union and division of images, colours, textures, styles and cultures inspired by the world of the imagination. The composition was performed at the Vienna festival in September 2004 and at the Etnakhta concert series in 2004 in Israel. The album was released at the end of 2005.
In 2005, Yedid composed the Oud Bass Piano Trio, performed at the Sibiu Festival in Romania, as well as in Australia, Canada, and the US in May and September 2005.
In 2006, Yedid composed Since My Soul Loved, a four movement composition for improvising players for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano.
In 2009, Yedid composed Arabic Violin Bass Piano Trio. The work was premiered at the Jerusalem Theatre's Henry Crown Symphony Hall in March 2010. The composition is a continuation of his endeavour in Oud Bass Piano Trio integrating classical Arabic music, Arabic-influenced Jewish music and contemporary Western classical music. This trio has been composed for improvising performers.
Since immigrating to Australia in 2007, his large-scale works include: Visions, Fantasies & Dances, music for string quartet, commissioned by Israel's Sapphire String Quartet; Piano Concerto, commissioned by Michael Kieran Harvey and the Tel Aviv Soloists; Kiddushim & Killulim commissioned by Christian Lindberg & NK Orchestra; Delusions of War for 22 string soloists or string orchestra, commissioned by Divertimenti Ensemble and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra; Mandolin Concerto, for mandolin and a large orchestra.
Yedid's chamber and solo works include: Chad Gadya, quartet for clarinet, violin, cello & piano, commissioned by Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival; Sensations for piano, violin and cello, commissioned by Atar Trio; Angels' Revolt chaconne for solo piano, commissioned by Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition; Out to Infinity for Harp solo, commissioned by the 2009 International Harp Contest for their 50th Anniversary; The Crying Souls, Lament for Syrian Victims, a cappella choir, commissioned by the Australian Voices
Yedid has put out over ten albums as a solo act and has collaborated Ethiopian-born saxophonist and vocalist Abate Berihun as the Ras-Deshen ensemble.
Yedid's works for strings include Visions, Fantasies and Dances for string quartet, and Delusions of War for string orchestra, and his compositions Oud Bass Piano Trio and 'Arabic Violin Bass Piano Trio' combine a classical Arabic instrument with Western instruments.
Some of Yedid's works have been described as Third Stream, which combines contemporary classical music with jazz improvisation. Much of Yedid's output includes slots where soloists can improvise. Yedid has often said he is delighted when performers surprise him with their inventiveness.
In his work , Yedid comments on the religious dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Musical style and influences

Yedid says his music is influenced by Arabic music,
Yedid's music contains a mix of elements. He says:
Yedid writes
Yedid's style of composition has been described as
Barry Davis wrote in The Jerusalem Post,
Yedid writes
This correlates with what the critics write about his music: John Shand from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote in 2014 about Yedid's Myth of the Cave "a vividly expansive composition"; Noam Ben-Zeav wrote in 2013 that "Yedid music is an authentic expression of new music which incorporates a wide spectrum of contemporary and ancient styles"; and Ake Holmquist wrote in 2004 that
Musically, Yedid creates a confluence between the Maqamat, heterophonic textures of ancient genres, and compositional approaches of contemporary Western classical music, to produce an original sound. Yedid introduces microtonality in his works in a range of different ways. He examined ways of using microtonal pitches that in Arabic music function as ornamentation and as part of improvisational gestures. He has extended the use of traditional ornamentation to compose microtonal sounds with microtonal qualities that unfold at different tempi without a definite pitch. This can be seen in many of his works. In his string quartet Visions, Fantasies and Dances, the microtonal intervals function in the context of diatonic and chromatic intervals and the method of a tension-and-release for intervals of a quarter-tone and three-quarter-tones have been employed.
Yedid have shown a new direction in his later works and courage to make a commentary on international currant political/religious problems that continue to find no resolution. The Crying Souls and Delusions of War are both anti-war works. The Crying Souls was written as a response to the chemical weapons attacks that happened in August 2013 in Damascus when more than 1,300 innocent civilian including children were massacred. Yedid writes "This work expresses my endless sadness to the death of innocent people". In the notes on Delusions of War he writes

Awards and Prizes

Yedid is the recipient of the Azrieli Foundation Prize for Jewish Music. His winning composition, Kiddushim Ve’ Killulim, was unanimously declared the best new major work of Jewish music by the judges of the Canadian prize. Yedid received a total prize package valued at over, which included a world premiere performance of his work by Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and a recording released on the Analekta label.
In 2018 Yedid was awarded the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, valued over a two-year period.
Yedid has received the top two prizes in Israel for composers and performers: the Prime Minister's Prize for Composers in 2007 and the in 2009. Additionally, in 2008, he received the first composition prize for Out to Infinity, a solo work for harp, at the 17th International Harp contest which led to numerous performances and recordings of the piece worldwide. Yedid has been awarded a composer-in- residence position at the Judith Wright Arts Centre, at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and at the Gallop House in WA.
AWARDS

Selected works

Before 2000

  • Remembering Yitzhak Rabin for piano solo
  • Tachanun, Suite in one movement for piano, double bass and percussions

2000–2023

  • Myth of the Cave for clarinet/bass clarinet, double bass and piano
  • Tachanun, Suite in one movement for piano solo
  • Full Moon Fantasy for piano solo
Yitzhak Yedid – piano
  • Oud, Bass, Piano Trio, Parts 3
  • Reflections upon Six Images, Image 1, for clarinet, viola, double bass and piano
  • Oud, Bass, Piano Trio, Parts 1–2
  • Ras Deshen for voice, saxophones, krar and piano
  • Nine Images for violin, cello and piano
  • Chagall Project, seven piano solo pieces inspired by Marc Chagall
  • Oud, Bass, Piano Trio, Parts 4–5
  • Reflections upon Six Images, Images 2–3, for clarinet, viola, double bass and piano
  • Ethiopian voices: Psalms for three singers, Ethiopian folk dancer, alto, double bass and piano
  • Clowns at Night for piano solo
  • String Quartet No 1
  • Since my Soul Loved for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano
  • Midsummer Night's Dream for piano solo
  • Out to Infinity for harp solo
  • In Memory, duo for flute and piano
  • String Quartet No 3
  • Kidoshin, duo for saxophone and piano
  • String Quartet No 2
  • Sensations for piano, violin and cello
  • Piano Quintet for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano
  • String Quartet No 4
  • Through the Window of Marc Chagall for piano solo
  • Reflections Upon Six Images, Image no 5 for double bass solo
  • Arabic Violin Bass Piano Trio for Arabic violin, double bass and piano, Parts 4–5
  • String Quartet No 5
  • Passions and Prayers, Sextet in hommage to Jerusalem for horn, clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone, viola, double bass and piano
  • Passions & Prayers, for horn, clarinet/bass clarinet, trombone, viola, double bass and piano
  • String Quartet No 7
  • Haunted!, Stage music for a play by Daniel Karasik
  • String Quartet No 6
  • Arabic Violin Bass Piano Trio] for Arabic violin, double bass and piano, Parts 1–3
  • The Crying Souls: Lament for Syrian Victims
  • Psalm 1 for solo soprano
  • Delusions of War ca. 24'
  • Violin Concerto for violin and a large orchestra
  • Zikaron, a structured improvisation for piano solo
  • CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND STRINGS ca. 24'
  • Angels' Revolt
  • Chad Gadya
  • KIDDUSHIM VE' KILLULIM, 2017
  • Music for Ancient Rituals
  • MAQA VIOLIN
  • LA BALLERINA DEL DIAVOLO 2020,

Publications

  • 2001: Analysis of "Tachanun" WMG
  • 2002: Myth and Music, Allegory of the Cave, CD Liner notes, Vienna New Music Festival Booklet
  • 2003: Analysis of "Passions & Prayers, Sextet in Homage to Jerusalem" CD Liner notes and Israel Festival program.
  • 2004: Analysis of "Reflections Upon Six Images" IBA channel
  • 2005: "Psalms", Ethiopian tradition Kessim Liturgy Liner notes. Confederation House Program.
  • 2005: Analysis of "Oud-Bass-Piano Trio" IBA channel, Israel
  • 2006: Analysis of "Since my soul Loved" Israel Broadcasting Authority, Israel
  • 2007: Oud Bass Piano Trio – New music incorporating a spectrum of contemporary and ancient styles. Sibiu Festival booklet, Vienna Festival booklet, International Oud Festival booklet.
  • 2008: Analysis of "Out to Infinity"
  • Curriculum Vitae

Discography

  • 1999 Full Moon Fantasy
  • 2001 Inner Outcry
  • 2002 Ras Deshen
  • 2003 Myth of the Cave
  • 2005 Passions & Prayers, Sextet in Homage to Jerusalem
  • 2006 Reflections upon Six Images
  • 2008 Oud Bass Piano Trio
  • 2009 Since My Soul Loved
  • 2010 Through the Window of Marc Chagall
  • 2012 Arabic Violin Bass Piano Trio
  • 2014 Visions, Fantasies and Dances: Music for String Quartet Sapphire String Quartet
  • 2019 Angels' Revolt
  • 2021 V'ahavta
  • 2022 New Jewish Music,