22^nd Kompolize Summer 2024

Winner of the 22^nd International Composition Competition Kompolize Summer 2024 is Amit Mashiach. His work (Not) An Hommage (2022) will receive its world premiere with the Lietzeorchester on Thursday, 11 July 2024, 7 pm, and on Saturday, 13 July 2024, 8 pm, at the Emmaus-church in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Once again, (Not) An Hommage can be heard on Sunday, 8 September 2024, 11 am, at the open-air stage of the Zitadelle Berlin-Spandau.

Amit Mashiach (born 1997) is an Israeli composer. His piece Russian Variations for two pianos was premiered at the Eden-Tamir Music Center in Jerusalem and broadcasted live on Kan Kol HaMusica radio station, with pianist Matan-el Ozeri and the composer at the pianos. More of his works have been performed by outstanding performers at the BMSM (Buchmann-Mehta School of Music) Contemporary Music Workshop in Tel Aviv University.

Amit Mashiach holds a bachelor's degree in composition and musicology from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, where he studied with Josef Bardanashvilli. Among his professors were notable Israeli composers such as Ruben Seroussi, Hadas Pe'ery and others. Additionally, Amit Mashiach is active as a pianist and performs mainly contemporary music by himself and his colleagues. He studies piano with Natasha Tadson.

Amit Mashiach, Program Note on (Not) An Hommage:

The piece corresponds with the music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Mendelssohn is considered to be one of the foremost composers in the history of Western music, though he is not known as an innovator. In fact, he was considered a conservative even in his own time. Yet he also had a unique and easily recognizable style. In this piece I took musical ideas and stylistic features from the music of Mendelssohn and attempted to recontextualize them through a modern lens. Not as an hommage to the composer (hence the name), but rather as an attempt to find his relevancy to our time. The opening motive of the piece is taken from the coda of the final movement of Mendelssohn's symphony no. 3, and it reappears in key points throughout the piece.