GILAD HOCHMAN
Composer
ZEFUNOT SCHOLARSHIP
Zefunot Culture commissioned an original composition from Gilad.
PRESS QUOTES
"Most impressive is Mr. Hochman’s gift for assembling musical gestures..."
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Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim,
New York Times
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"Already a well known classical composer..."
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Kristine Pommert, BBC World Service
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"Meteoric career to composer Gilad Hochman..."
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Christopher Nielsen,
Deutschland Magazine
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"Hochman sheds new light on customary expressions in music..."
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Noam Ben-Zeev, Ha'aretz
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"Hochman is already a happy reality in the proscenium of contemporary music..."
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Andrea Bedetti, CDclassico
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"A rising star in the classical music world..."
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Anne Mailliet, France 24
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"Hochman writes with a true artist's hand..."
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Ora Binur, Ma'ariv
BIOGRAPHY
Gilad Hochman is widely considered as one of Israel's most prominent young composers and as an original and innovative voice in the international music scene. He was described as “a rising star in the classical music world” by France 24 and as "an already a well-known classical composer” by the BBC. The New York Times stated that “most impressive is Mr. Hochman’s gift for assembling musical gestures that come across as psychologically revealing” while the Israeli Prime Minister's Prize committee described him as “a fascinating, original and colorful creator”. Ma'ariv concluded – “Hochman writes with a true artist's hand”.
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Amongst his many achievements, at 24 years old he became the youngest to win Israel's prestigious Prime Minister's Prize for Composers for his artistic work. Notable performances of his compositions include chamber-music retrospective concerts in Germany and the Berlin Philharmonie orchestral debut in 2013. In 2015 his orchestral piece “Suspended Reality” was commissioned and played in a concert tour by the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva and the Philharmonie der Nationen under conductor Justus Frantz. This piece's performances included a premiere at the German Parliament and concerts at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Wuppertal's Stadthalle, Tel Aviv's Opera House and at six other venues. Other compositions by Hochman have been played at Carnegie Hall (New York), Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, St James's Piccadilly (London) and Henry Crown Symphony Hall (Jerusalem), to name a few.
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Born in Israel in 1982 to an Odessa-native father and a Paris-native mother, Hochman resides in Berlin since 2007. That same year, he graduated with honors from the music academy at Tel Aviv University, where he studied composition under Gil Shohat, as well as musicology and theory under some of Israel’s leading senior musicians. He started studying piano at the age of 6 and composition at the age of 9. At age 14 Hochman started learning composition under Ilya Heifets, an esteemed composer dedicated to the creation of contemporary works relating to traditional Jewish music. Since then, Hochman's music has developed its own language – constantly searching yet at the same time presenting a clear aesthetic approach. It is uniquely merging classical music traditions with those relating to Jewish music and culture and to his Israeli origin while striving for a balance between rational and emotional expressions. Stylistically, his music ranges freely between modal, tonal and various contemporary idioms and techniques.
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Hochman's oeuvre includes a wide range of orchestral, choral, chamber and solo compositions that are regularly performed by leading musicians in Israel, the U.S. and Europe, such as Oriol Ensemble, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble, Synergy Ensemble, Israeli Chamber Project, Musica Nova Ensemble, Ensemble Meitar, Studium Chorale, Copenhagen Festival Ensemble and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. They were also presented at the Heidelberg Biennale for New Music, The World Saxophone Congress, Aachen International Chorbiennale, Israel Music Fest, the Israeli Schubertiade, Musica Sacra Festival – Maastricht, Magister Ludi Festival - Moscow and in numerous different concert series worldwide.