Noam Sheriff

Noam Sheriff was born in 1935 in Tel Aviv

Noam Sheriff was born in 1935, the son of Tova and Meir. He grew up in Tel Aviv and attended the Herzliya Gymnasium. He studied piano and violin.

He studied music in Tel Aviv with Paul Ben-Haim and Zeev Priel, and at the same time studied philosophy and Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. There he began conducting and founded the university orchestra. He later studied composition in Berlin with Boris Blacher and conducting in Salzburg with Igor Markevitch.

In 1957 Leonard Bernstein chose his work Akdamot LeMoed to open the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. His music combined elements of ancient Mediterranean culture with Western tradition. His works include a vocal trilogy of Mechaye HaMetim, Spanish Passion and Psalms of Jerusalem, the opera Golem 13 and music for films.

He was music director of the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. From 1963 he taught composition and conducting, including at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University, which he directed from 1998 to 2000. He was married to composer Ella Milch-Sheriff from 1982 until his death in 2018.