Sergiu Natra

Sergiu Natra was born in 1924 in Bucharest

Natra was born Sergiu Nadler in Bucharest, Romania, in 1924. His Jewish family came from Austria, Germany and the Czech lands. As a child he studied piano and began composing at a young age.

He studied at a Jewish conservatory until 1942. He then studied at the Music Academy of Bucharest, learning theory, composition and orchestration with Leon Klepper and modern music with Mihail Andricu. He graduated in 1954.

His 1944 orchestral piece March and Chorale marked him as a modernist, and it won him the Enescu Prize for composition in 1945. During the Holocaust and later under the communist regime, he and his family suffered forced labor, prison time and the seizure of their property. After applying to emigrate, he and his wife were barred from professional work.

In 1961 Natra and his wife, the sculptor Sonia, moved to Israel and settled in Ramat Aviv. A year later the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed his Symphony Horizons. From 1975 to 1985 he was a professor at the music academy of Tel Aviv University, teaching 20th century music, composition and form analysis.

His works for harp are often performed and are required pieces in harp competitions. He died in February 2021, a month after his wife, and was buried in Kfar Saba. He had two sons, Danny and Gabi.