T he Living Composers Project

Czernowin, Chaya (b. December 7, 1957, Haifa). Israeli composer, now resident in the USA, of mostly orchestral, chamber and vocal works that have been performed throughout the world.

She studied composition with Abel Ehrlich and Yizhak Sadai at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel-Aviv University from 1976-82 and with Dieter Schnebel at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin from 1983-85, on a grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. She then studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough and Roger Reynolds at the University of California at San Diego from 1987-93, where she earned her PhD.

Among her honors are the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at Darmstadt (1992), a Japan Foundation Artist scholarship (1993), the Asahi Shinbun Fellowship (1993-94, a residency in Tokyo), a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (1995), and a year-long residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart (1996). More recently, she has received three grants to work at the Experimentalstudio of the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung in Freiburg/Breisgau (1997, 1999, 2001-02), a commission from Ensemble Intercontemporain and IRCAM (1998) and selection as best première of the year by the magazine Opernwelt and the Bayerisches Theater Preis (both 2000, both for PNIMA...ins innere). She has also received the Förderpreis der Ernst von Siemens Stiftung in Munich (2003) and a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation (2004, for two portrait concerts with Ensemble Sospeso in New York City in 2005). Moreover, she has served as composer-in-residence at numerous festivals, most recently at the Salzburg Festival (2005).

Her music has been performed throughout the world, including twice at the ISCM World Music Days (1995, Essen; 2001, Yokohama) and the Huddersfield (2003-04) and Salzburg (2005-06) festivals. In addition, her works have been performed at the Musikprotokoll in Graz (1996), Musica Nova in Helsinki (1998), Tage für Neue Musik Zürich (1999), Ars Musica in Brussels (1999), Biennale München (2000), Biennale Bern (2001), Wien Modern (2002), Donaueschingen (2002), and Suntory in Tokyo (2004) festivals, among others.

She taught composition at the Yoshiro Irino Institute of Music in Tokyo in 1994-95 and has taught as a professor of composition at the University of California at San Diego since 1997. In addition, she lectured at Darmstadt from 1990-98 and in 2004 and founded a biannual masterclass at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2003, where she has since taught.

After leaving in Israel in 1983, she lived in Germany from 1983-85, the USA from 1986-93 and Japan from 1993-95 and has once again lived in the USA since 1997.

She is married to the composer Steven Kazuo Takasugi.

Schott publishes her music.

CONTACT INFORMATION

E-mail address: cczernowin@ucsd.edu

SELECT LIST OF WORKS

STAGE: PNIMA...ins innere (3 act chamber opera, vocalise, after David Grossman), high female voice, low female voice, high male voice, low male voice, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, trombone, viola, cello, musical saw, string orchestra, 1998-99

ORCHESTRAL: Birds, 15 strings, 1984; Amber, large orchestra, 1993 (also version as Liquid Amber [concerto], 3 amplified piccolos, large orchestra, 2000); Maim zarim, maim gnuvim – Strange Water, Stolen Water, oboe (+ musette, English horn), E-flat tubax (contrabass saxophone), electric guitar, viola, piano (+ harpsichord), large orchestra, live electronics, 2001-02; Dam Sheon Hachol, string orchestra, 2002 (version of chamber work)

CHAMBER MUSIC: Ina, bass flute, CD/6 bass flutes (any 3 + piccolo, flute), 1989; LeArye – For Arye, violin, CD, 1990 (also version for violin, ensemble [15 violins, 15 violas], 1990); Dam Sheon Hachol – The Hourglass Bleeds Still, 2 violins, 2 violas, cello, double bass, 1992 (also version for string orchestra); Tris, percussion, CD/2 percussion, 1993; A map of a recurrent dream, sho (+ u [Japanese mouth organ]), CD/u, 1994; Die Kreuzung, u, alto saxophone, double bass, 1994; String Quartet, 1995; Afatsim – Gallnuts, bass flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion, 1996; Winter Songs I: Pending Light, bass flute, bass clarinet, alto trombone, tuba, viola, cello, double bass, live electronics, 2002-03 (also versions as Winter Songs II: Stones, 3 percussion, ensemble [bass flute, bass clarinet, alto trombone, tuba, viola, cello, double bass], 2003; Winter Songs III: Roots, 3 percussion, ensemble [bass flute, bass clarinet, alto trombone, tuba, viola, cello, double bass], live electronics, 2003); Excavated Dialogues, bangdi (Chinese bamboo flute), sheng (Chinese mouth organ), flute (+ piccolo), oboe (+ English horn), bassoon (+ contrabassoon), trombone (+ bass trombone), pipa, yangqin (plucked Chinese instrument), zheng (Chinese zither), erhu, violin, viola, cello, double bass, daruan (bass Chinese plucked instrument), piano, 2003

VOCAL: Manoalchadiya (text by Endad Eldan), high female voice, low female voice, bass flute, 1988; Shu Hai Mitamen Behatalat Kidon – Shu Hai Practices Javelin (text by Zohar Eitan), low female voice, CD/9 low female voices, live electronics, 1996-97 (also longer version of second movement as Shu Hai in an orchestral setting, low female voice, orchestra, CD/9 low female voices, live electronics, 2000-01); Six miniatures and a simultaneous song (text by Zohar Eitan), 2 ensembles (soprano, guitar, viola; bass flute, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, cello), 1998

DISCOGRAPHY

Afatsim. ensemble recherche (ORF, 1997)

Afatsim; String Quartet; Die Kreuzung; Dam Sheon Hachol (original version); Ina. Mayumi Miyata, u; John Fonville, flutes; Takashi Saito, alto saxophone; Arun Bharali, Erik Ulman, violins; Conrad Bruderer, Mary Oliver, violas; Frank Cox, cello; Ulfar Haraldsson, Keizo Misoiri, double basses; Arditti String Quartet; Harvey Sollberger/Sonor Ensemble (Mode Records: 77, 1999)

Ina. John Fonville, flutes (Einstein Records: EIN 014, 2000)

Six miniatures and a simultaneous song; Shu Hai in an orchestral setting; Shu Hai Mitamen Behatalat Kidon. Deborah Kayser, soprano; Ute Wassermann, low voices; Simon Hewett/Elision; Johannes Kalitzke/Basel Sinfonietta (Mode Records: 117, 2002)

Maim zarim, maim gnuvim. Peter Veale, oboe, musette, English horn; Rico Gubler, E-flat tubax; Seth Josel, electric guitar; Mary Oliver, viola; John Mark Harris, piano, harpsichord; Sylvain Cambreling/SWR-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg (Col Legno: WWE 20229, 2003)

(Last updated on September 16, 2004)