Talia Amar's biography
Composer and pianist
Biography
Dr. Talia Amar is an Israeli composer and pianist. Described as “a master composer… (she) has a fine ear for sound as well as sure compositional technique” (David Schulenberg, The Boston Musical Intelligencer), she is the recipient of many international awards including the Prime Minister prestigious award 2018, The Acum prize for “best piece of the year” 2022, The Acum award 2019, The Rosenblum Prize for Promising Young Artist 2016 by the Tel Aviv Municipality ,the Klon Award for young composers granted by the Israeli Composers League, CIRCE Composition Competition, London Ear Festival, North-South Consonance Composition Competition, International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition, and she also has consecutively been awarded scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation both in piano and composition (with honors).
Recently, she was selected by the famous violinist Renaud Capuçon to participate in the Festival New Horizons d’Aix en Provence 2022 where her piece, commissioned especially for the festival, will be performed. In 2022 her piece “Labyrinth” was commissioned and performed at Festival Présences by Radio France in Paris. Her string quartet “Obsession” was featured in Castleton Festival USA after being hand selected by Maestro Lorin Maazel. She was selected to be the Composer Fellow of Collage New Music for 2015-2016 in Boston. She has participated in the IRCAM ManiFeste workshop and the Royaumont composition course in France.
Performances and Master Classes
Her compositions have been performed in France, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Australia, Philippines, Taiwan, Germany, USA, England, Greece, Italy and Israel by ensembles such as: ICE, Itinéraire Ensemble, Standing Waves, Yarn/Wire, Collage New Music, Lydian String Quartet, North-South Consonance, Meitar Ensemble, Israel Contemporary Players, Les Cris de Paris, Atar trio, Ensemble Recherche du Midi, and Uroboros Ensemble.
She was selected to represent Israel in different festivals such as ISCM World New Music in Vancouver, ICMC in Seoul South Korea, ECCO Festival in Brussels, and Asian Composers League Festival in Taiwan. Additionally, her pieces were performed in Festival Présences, Vox Feminae Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, CEME Festival, Castleton Festival, London Ear Festival, and Visible Sounds Congress.
She participated in various classes such as analysis classes at the Conservatoire National Superieur De Musique Et De Danse de Paris, the Royaumont composition course at the Royaumont Abbey in France, Contemporary Encounters in Tel-Aviv, the conference Matrix on Tour in Montreal, IRCAM ManiFeste, soundSCAPE, the IRCAM workshop at Boston University with Grégoire Lorieux, and the Composers Conference at Wellesley College guided by Mario Davidovsky.
She has attended master classes in composition with renowned composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Hèctor Parra, Detlef Heusinger, Marc André, Philippe Leroux, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Michael Lévinas.
As a pianist, Talia has performed as soloist in Israel, France and USA with the following orchestras: Lamoureux Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Raanana Symphonette Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, and Rishon Letsion Orchestra. She has participated in master classes with Murray Perahia, Nikolai Petrov, Jerome Rose, and Richard Goode. She participated at the Tel-Hai International Piano Master Classes where she won a distinction prize and a fellowship.
Studies
Talia began studying piano at the age of 6 with Mrs. Luisa Yoffe and composition at the age of 14 with renowned composer Prof. Mark Kopytman. She earned her B.M. in composition with honors under the guidance of Prof. Ari Ben-Shabetai and Prof. Yinam Leef at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She completed her piano program with honors with Prof. Emanuel Krasovsky at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel-Aviv University. She earned her M.M. at the Mannes College of Music in NYC with Prof. Mario Davidovsky in composition and Prof. Victor Rosenbaum in piano. She earned her PhD at Brandeis University where her instructors included David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow, and Yu-Hui Chang. She was awarded an Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award for 2015-16 and have been named the recipient of the Irving G. Fine Fellowship in Music Composition for the 2016-17 and 2017-2018 academic years. She was also selected as one of this year’s recipients of the Sandy Fisher Prize for Exceptional Achievement in the Creative Arts at Brandeis University.
Teaching
Since 2017, Talia joined the composition faculty at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in Israel where she is also the Head of Technology and Innovation.
In 2023, Talia started teaching as a guest lecturer in the Musicology Department at the Hebrew University.
Talia is a council member of the Israeli Composers League and the electronics performer of Meitar Ensemble.