Noam Sheriff

Noam Sheriff (1935-2018)

Born in Ramat Gan, Sheriff learned to play the piano and horn as a child, and acquired his musical education with composer Paul Ben-Haim (formerly Frankenburger) and conductor Zeev Priel (formerly Wolfgang Friedlander).
In 1952, at age 17, Sheriff was invited to conduct the Israel Broadcast Authority (IBA) Orchestra. Later on he began his military service, and after establishing a choir in his infantry battalion, he was transferred to the IDF Orchestra as a hornist and assistant to conductor Shalom Ronly-Riklis. In 1954 he was invited to study in Salzburg with musician Igor Markevitch. He returned to Israel the next year to study philosophy in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he established an orchestra of students and faculty members.

In 1957, he anonymously submitted his work Festival Prelude to the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra Competition and won; conducted by Leonard Bernstein, it was premiered at the opening of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.  Two years later, in 1959, he submitted Songs of Ascents to the same competition, and won again. He also won the Krips Conductors Competition and won a scholarship in the Hochschule für Musik Berlin.

In 1962 he returned to Israel and conducted the IBA’s Entertainment Orchestra, as well as composed soundtracks for major Israeli films including The Big Dig, Sinia (also called Clouds over Israel) and The Garden. In 1970, he was appointed as the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra’s Musical Director. In 1965-1976, he composed original scores for five Batsheva dances: Tent of Visions (1965), Reflections (1967), Sin Lieth at the Door, Curtains (1969), Until That I Arose (1976).
In the mid-1980s he moved to Europe again, taught in the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and supervised the conducting course of the Mozerteum Orchestra Salzburg. In 1987 he returned to Israel and during the following years he composed three vocal works which form a trilogy and are considered among his most important compositions: Revival of the Dead (1987), Sephardic Passion (1992), and Psalms of Jerusalem (1995).

Throughout the years, Sheriff managed many orchestras in Israel, taught conductors and young composers in Israel and worldwide, initiated musical events and worked to popularize classical music in commentated courses and radio and TV shows. In 1991, he was made a professor at the Tel Aviv University Music Academy, which he went on to head in 1998-2000. In 2002, he was appointed the Israeli Chamber Orchestra’s Musical Director. He is still teaching conducting, orchestration and composition.
Sheriff’s works were printed by C. F. Peters Edition in Frankfurt and Israel Music Institute (IMI). Sheriff won a series of awards, including the Engel Prize and the Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers of Music in Israel (ACUM) Prize (both in 1991), as well as EMET Prize for music in 2003. In 2011, he won the Israel Prize for the study of music.