Yitzhak Yedid

Biography

Yitzhak Yedid is an Israeli-born Australian orchestral and chamber-music composer, improvising pianist, researcher and educator. Yedid is a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow (2018-19).

Yedid’s music described as: “eclectic, multicultural and very personal style that combines jazz and Jewish cantor music, classic European and avant-garde, randomness and a blend of techniques.” (Davis ‘17). American musicologist Professor Ronit Seter wrote “Yitzhak Yedid, an Israeli-born Australian composer, amalgamates in his music his ancestral Syrian- and Iraqian-Jewish cantillation, Israeli East-West encounters, European and American avant-garde compositional techniques mixed with free jazz ones, and selected Australian influences, all infused with his insights as a concert pianist and improviser to create an experimental, highly expressive yet alluring modern style. Yedid’s music is therefore multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and consequently, transnational.” (2019)

“Over the past couple of decades or so, Yedid has put out an almost bewilderingly eclectic range of works and recordings. His disciplinary backdrop takes in Western classical music, free improvisation, Arabic music and liturgical material. His compositions are generally viscerally and cerebrally engaging, and often visually striking, with the piano- playing role requiring a certain amount of calisthenic activity and a significant dosage of emotional and technical investment.” (Barry ‘17).

His awards include: the Israel Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers (’07) and the Landau Prize for Performing Arts (2009). In 2008 he was awarded first composition prize at the 17th International Harp competition. In 2009 his poly-stylistic composition Oud Bass Piano Trio was nominated for Germany’s Echo Award. Yedid was awarded a composer-in-residence position at the Judith Wright Centre (Brisbane, ’10).

Twelve CDs of Yedid’s compositions have been released by prestigious international publishers and distributers including Challenge Records International, Sony, Naxos, -btl-, Muse, MCI and Kaleidos.

Composer website: https://www.yedidmusic.com

Featured Works

Angels’ Revolt, chaconne for piano, for Solo Piano

The piece was commissioned by the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, and, expectedly, it is highly virtuosic and impressive composition, both technically and compositionally. From the vigorous beginning, Yedid develops, over obsessive Messiaen-like rhythmic patterns and abundance of tremolos, his transition to quasi-maqamat melodies, inspired by the Arab instrument, santur. The middle section, in sharp contrast to the beginning and the ending ones, is lyrical and somewhat improvisatory. The last section, similar to the opening but even more daring, ends the work with a stormy, passionate mood. Ultimately, the embedded dichotomy in the imaginative title of the piece is fully expressed in the music.

– Yitzhak Yedid

Featured in Piano Waves – October 2019