Eliav Kohl is a contemporary music composer with a Ph.D. in composition from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a senior faculty member at the Buchmann Mehta School of Music. His Ph.D. dissertation, advised by Prof. Joseph Straus, explores the themes of identity and complexity in Chaya Czernowin's composition "Ina" (1988) for solo bass flute and six prerecorded flutes.
Kohl earned his bachelor's (2012) and master's (2014) degrees in composition from the Buchmann Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv under the guidance of Ruben Seroussi. He has also received composition lessons from Mr. Josef Bardanashvili and Prof. Amnon Wolman.
Kohl's compositions have been featured at various music festivals and international masterclasses, including the AMMERSEErenade Klasikfestival (2022), Villa Musica (2019), Tectonics (2017), Impuls (2017), CEME (2015, 2017), Darmstadt (2016), and SiMN (2014). His works have been performed by renowned ensembles and artists such as the Mivos Quartet, the JACK Quartet, Meitar Ensemble, Hand Werk Ensemble, International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA), Kaunas Quartet, Móbile Ensemble, Gleb Kanasevich, Yotam Silberstein, Han Chen, Erica Le Roux, Alexander Hülshoff, and Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir, among others.
Kohl's impressive career has earned him several prestigious awards, including the ACUM Prize (2018), the Israeli Prime Minister's Prize (2016), second prizes in the Buchmann-Mehta competitions (2011, 2015), and the audience award in the Aviv Competitions for Israeli Composers (2013).
Recently, Kohl was selected as composer in residence at St. Ottilien, Munich, and his work was performed at the 2022 AMMERSEErenade Klasikfestival. In the previous year Kohl was selected by Péter Eötvös to be the composer in residence for the second half of 2019 at the Herrenhaus Edenkoben, Germany. Previously, Kohl was a fellow in Meitar Ensemble's Tedarim project (2014-2016), he received fellowships from the Ruth and Yoav Gottesman Foundation (2012-2014), and the America Israel Cultural Foundation (2003-2005).
Currently, Kohl is immersed in the development of a full-scale opera for Meitar Ensemble, which will be directed by Tal Brenner. The opera draws on texts written by both Israeli and Palestinian authors, including renowned writers such as David Grossman and Mahmoud Darwish. The project promises to be a thought-provoking exploration of complex themes, and showcases Kohl's innovative approach to contemporary music composition.
In 2021, Kohl joined the composition faculty at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel-Aviv, where he had also served as an Ensemble Instructor at the Workshop for Contemporary Music in 2020.
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