Hanoch Yaakobi

Hanoch Yaakobi was born in 1909 in Königsberg

Hanoch Yaakobi was born in 1909 in Königsberg, Germany, where he learned the viola. From 1927 to 1930 he studied music in Berlin, with Paul Hindemith as his composition teacher.

He played in a chamber orchestra in Berlin and from 1930 in the Frankfurt radio orchestra. In 1933 he was fired because of the Nuremberg Laws. In 1934 he moved to the Land of Israel as violist in the Jerusalem string quartet founded by Emil Hauser.

He helped found the Jerusalem conservatory that became the music academy, taught there, and headed it from 1954 to 1958. In those years he was principal violist of the Jerusalem orchestra and often conducted it. From 1958 until he retired in 1974 he played viola in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

He wrote 3 symphonies and arranged many songs for Bracha Zefira. His suite based on a cantata to words by A. D. Gordon won the Engel Prize in 1952.

In 1974 he was artist in residence at the Technion in Haifa. After retiring he kept teaching, playing and leading chamber groups. He died in Tel Aviv in 1990.