Composer, guitar player and multimedia artist, he is considered one of Italy’s most innovative talents of the contemporary music scene. Born in Jerusalem in 1977, he has studied at the city’s Music Academy, and subsequently with Angelo Gilardino as well as at the New Technologies Department of the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire in Milan, where he currently lives.
His works range from huge sonic events for numerous performers to demanding orchestral and chamber compositions, from icon/ sonic operas involving classical musicians, electronics, visuals, and traditional carriers of ancient cultures, to highly technological projects involving scientists, artificial intelligence, and live sonic elaborations. He regularly cooperates with institutions such as the New Technologies Department of the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire in Milan and the Ethnomusicology and Visual Anthropology Lab (LEAV) of the Milan University.
His major achievements include KARAGATAN for a hundred musicians playing traditional gongs and bamboos, with two conductors (premiered in the Philippines in 2013); the OTOT Symphony for the opening of the concert season at the Theatre in Como, Italy; Unfolding Space, in cooperation with NASA and ESA scientists, premiered in 2012; GARON for 45 tubas, six percussionists, three conductors, choir and live electronics (closure of the Anish Kapoor exhibition in Milan, 2012); and four operas commissioned by Italian festivals: Kolot (Rec Festival, Reggio Emilia, 2008), SAMARITANS (MITO SettembreMusica, Milan, 2010), LEILIT (Roma Europa Festival, 2011), and Noise for Syd (Festival Aperto, Reggio Emilia, 2013).
Yuval Avital is also a highly acclaimed guitar player, playing both classic and electric guitars. He has performed worldwide in venues such as Paris’s Centre Pompidou, Milan’s Palazzo Reale and Teatro Nuovo, Quinta da Regaleira Palace in Portugal, and National Conservatory of China in Beijing. His concerts have been broadcast notably by Sky Classica (who also produced a documentary on the composer), CCTV China, Radio 3 Suite, Kol Ha Musica (Israel), WQXR & Classical (USA), and many other broadcasting stations around the world.
Major works: Slow Horizons for 12 Kazakh indigenous players, storyteller, two dancers, video and guitar (2006), Maga for four Israeli and Palestine musicians and video (2006), Three Plucked Strings for guitar, mandolin and harpsichord (2001–07), Packman vs. Escher for 10 musicians, craftsmen and painters (2007), Sound/ Visual Transformation of Ostense Train Station (2007), Bdidut for retuned guitar (2007), Environments Exploration, performance (2007), Cave canem for 12 soloists, guitar and electronics (2008), Masà for tape, guitar, live electronic and various electroacoustic instruments (2008), Roman Games for infinite number of musicians (2008), KOLOT, “icon/sonic opera” for 12 traditional singers, soloists, video and live electronics (2008), Lefkara Moirai for two singers, guitar, 12 craftsmen, video, narrator and live electronics (2009), SAMARITANS, “icon/sonic opera” for soloists, Samaritans choir, video and live electronics (2010), Corpo, installation for two dancers, video and live electronics (2010), Mise en abîme for a crowd of 100 people, 34 accordions, soloists and four conductors (2011), Dimdum for bass flute (2011), LEILIT, “icon/sonic opera” for recorder consort, accordion consort, piano, bowed piano, guitar, two Keis cantors, video and live electronics (2011), Music for 7 no. 6 for seven accordions (2011), Dream, Shadows, Passages, piano sonata (2011), Music for 7 no. 1 for seven tenor recorders (2011), GARON, “massive sonic work” for 45 tubas, six percussions, three conductors, choir and live electronics (2012), Unfolding Space, concerto for classical guitar, live electronics, video and space sound transmission (2012), Space, Unfolded, concert–sound installation for eight speakers, 40 tapes and artificial intelligence (with Giovanni Cospito, 2012), OTOT, “icon/sonic symphony” for extended chamber orchestra, five percussions, three accordions, visuals and live electronics (2013), KARAGATAN for 100 traditional gong and bamboo performers (2013), La tua arpa, vuota for guitar (2013), Utopie no. 1 for percussion, video and tape (2013), Noise for Syd, opera in memory of Syd Barrett (2013), REKA for six traditional singers, two percussions and a crowd of 100 people (2014).
