Frank Pelleg

Frank Pelleg was born in 1910 in Prague

Frank Pelleg was born Frank Pollak in Prague on 24 September 1910, when the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He performed as a piano and harpsichord soloist from a young age. He studied piano, composition and conducting at the Czech Academy of Music.

He conducted the Prague Opera Orchestra until 1936, when he moved to the Land of Israel at the initiative of Bronisław Huberman and changed his surname. After Israel was founded, he started chamber concerts at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He headed the music department of the Ministry of Education and Culture until 1952, and Naomi Shemer was among his students.

In 1951 he moved to Haifa at the invitation of mayor Abba Hushi and founded the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. He also led the Technion Orchestra for several years and was the first musical director of the Haifa Theater. In 1956 he went to Poland as Israel's first representative.

From 1956 to 1959 he took part in the Kol Yisrael radio program Shlosha BeSirah Achat, writing music for satirical songs with Dan Almagor. In 1963 he taught at a seminar in Saint Moritz, where he argued against a rigid approach to playing Bach.

He died of a heart attack in Haifa on 20 December 1968 and was buried in Hof HaCarmel Cemetery. The Ministry of Education later created a prize in his name, and a street in Haifa's Denia neighborhood bears his name.