Israel Yinon

Israel Yinon was born in 1956 in Kfar Saba

Israel Yinon was born in Kfar Saba on 11 January 1956 and grew up in Moshav Haniel in the Sharon region. As a child he played the accordion.

He studied conducting, music theory and composition at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music from 1981 to 1984. He continued at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance from 1985 to 1988, with Mendi Rodan and Noam Sheriff.

Yinon focused on composers who died in the Holocaust or were banned by the Nazis, such as Hans Krása, Pavel Haas and Erwin Schulhoff. He also promoted forgotten works and living composers, including Israelis such as Josef Tal and Oded Zehavi. He was a guest conductor with orchestras in Israel and abroad, including the Royal Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony, and recorded for labels such as Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.

On 29 January 2015 he collapsed on stage and died in Lucerne, Switzerland, while conducting a youth orchestra in Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony. His daughter, Shir-Ran Yinon, from his marriage to Aviva Yinon, is a violinist, violist and composer.