
Yotam Haber was born in Holland and grew up in Israel, Nigeria, and Milwaukee. He received a 2012 Fromm Music Foundation commission, the 2007-2008 Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize and a 2005 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Recent commissions include two works for Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor; new works for New York-based Contemporaneous, Gabriel Kahane, Either/Or, and Alarm Will Sound; the 2012 Venice Biennale; 2012 Bang on a Can Summer Festival; the Neuvocalsolisten Stuttgart and ensemble l’arsenale; FLUX Quartet, JACK Quartet, Cantori New York, and the Berlin-based Quartet New Generation. He recently completed an evening-length work, A More Convenient Season, that premiered in 2013 with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, commemorating the 1963 Baptist Church bombing. It will be presented in LA’s REDCAT/Disney Hall in January 2014. Haber is formerly Artistic Director of MATA, the non-profit organization founded by Philip Glass, that has, since 1996, been dedicated to commissioning and presenting new works by young composers from around the world. He is currently working on Voice Imitator, a music and visual art collaboration with recent MacArthur Fellow, Anna Schuleit. In 2013-14, he serves as Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of New Orleans. His music is published by RAI Trade.
Articles by Yotam Haber:
I know that I've built lasting, extraordinary friendships, and created ties to a magical city that will remain with me for a lifetime.
Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, who has described music as the supreme art form, is primarily concerned with how buildings can move someone.
This week I analyze seven national anthems to see if I could discover any tips or hints for those of you who have been commissioned to compose an anthem for...
When a group of artists works in close quarters, we are conscious of each other's progress, of each other's writer's blocks, and our own productivity becomes effected whether we like...
Does an abstract piece of art or music substantially gain power from its name?
While I love Sciarrino's 6 Capricci for its quiet bravura and powerful, concise musicality, I find its notation a sometimes-exasperating exercise in code breaking.
What if many frogs make a prince of a piece?
Those of us who were taught before notation software may be suspect of composing without paper, but does it allow you to hear fresh new rhythms and textures?
Why is a synagogue's choir, in a city where keeping a certain tradition alive is unusually important, seemingly going out of its way to assimilate its music?