“Distinct, radical, pure, expressive, dramatic, and personal.”

This is how critics have described Aviya Kopelman's music. An Israeli composer, pianist and producer born in Moscow, formed in Jerusalem, seasoned in Tel Aviv, and based in Berlin and Tel Aviv, she is known for her blend of contemporary classical, jazz, rock, art-pop and electronic elements in orchestral, chamber, vocal and multigenre works of extreme emotional power. Her work often blurs the line between concert and non-concert music.

Underneath this range is a constant thread: identity. Kopelman approaches it from personal, social, national, historical, and gender perspectives, always looking for something universal within the most local and intimate material. Some works explore memory, belonging, and the ways nationalism can erode empathy; others turn to the role and identity of the artist, especially a female one, drawing on poets ranging from Anna Akhmatova and Leah Goldberg to Yona Wallach and Emily Dickinson.

Her musical world can shift quickly: one moment she is writing for the Kronos Quartet and Carnegie Hall, the next forming her own band and recording an album of her songs.

For seven years, Kopelman served as Composer-in-Residence of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. She is one of the youngest-ever recipients of the Israeli Prime Minister's Prize for Composition and was chosen from more than 300 composers worldwide for the Kronos "Under 30 Project."

Full biography and press photos: Press & downloads.