Draft:Daniel Galay

Daniel Galay (born April 17, 1945, Buenos Aires) is an Israeli composer, pianist, author, and translator. He is the chairman of Beit Leyvik, the Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Israel. Galay received the Prime Minister's Prize for Composers in 2009 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Jewish Music from the National Authority for Yiddish Culture, Israel, in 2020.

Biography

Daniel Galay was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1945 to a Yiddish-speaking family. His father, Zishe Goldwaser, was an actor in the Yiddish theater IFT. Galay began studying piano at age five and, later in his childhood, wrote short stories in Spanish. In 1960 he received a literature prize from the Jewish World Congress. As a youth, he was actively involved in a Zionist youth movement and immigrated to Israel in 1965 with a group from the movement, joining Kibbutzim Dvir and Lehavot HaBashan. Galay studied music at the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires and the Tel Aviv University Rubin Academy of Music. He furthered his studies in composition at the University of Chicago, earning a master's degree. He studied composition under several teachers, including Josef Tal, Abel Ehrlich, Leon Schidlowsky, and Ralph Shapey, and received piano instruction from Arie Vardi, Yali Wagman, and Waldemar Axel Roldan. Galay has composed theater music, including for Jean Genet's "The Balcony" (directed by Yaakov Raz at the Khan Theater in 1981), as well as works for orchestra, choir, ballet, chamber ensembles, solo instrumental, and original chamber operas. In 1973, Galay married attorney Hannah Ne'eman. They have a daughter, cellist Dr. Racheli Galay, and a son, filmmaker Asaf Galay.

Music

Daniel Galay is a composer of orchestral works, theater music, choral, ballet, and chamber music. His compositions have been performed by symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists in Israel, the U.S., Canada, Argentina and China. His works have been broadcast internationally.

His large works are included in the programs of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Poznan and Wroclaw Philharmonic, Hungarian Virtuosi Orchestra of Budapest, Rosario Chamber Orchestra, Moldova National Filharmonica, under the baton of the well-known conductors David Robertson, Zsolt Nagy, Geoffrey Styles, Barbara Schubert and Zsolt Serei. Galay has composed works based on his own texts and folk tales. In 1991, he received the Sarah Gorby Prize at Beit Leyvik for his body of work dedicated to Jewish culture. His Klezmer music has been widely performed worldwide by prominent Klezmer musicians such as Giora Feidman. He composed chamber operas: "Chaim Ben Chaya," "Itsche Heistir," "Green Time," and "Bride and Groom from Nemirov," for which he wrote the libretti in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. These operas have been performed in Israel and Germany. He has also composed music to Yiddish texts by Peretz Markish, Uri Zvi Greenberg, Avraham Sutzkever, Zvi Kanar and others. In 2009, Galay received the Prime Minister's Prize for Composers. He has been active in music education and has authored instructional books, such as From Do to Sol (IMC), and a Classical Improvisation Method (IMC) for string orchestra with his daughter, Dr. Racheli Galay. Combining Western and Jewish music with Israeli cultural themes, Galay regularly participates in festivals and international conferences. He has been invited to events such as the Jewish Culture Week in Dresden, the Bruno Schulz Festival in Ukraine, the Aqua-Termi Contemporary Music Festival in Italy, the Jewish Cultures Festival in Madrid.

Yiddish and Ashkenazi Heritage

For decades, Daniel Galay has worked to preserve and promote Yiddish culture, engaging young people with the Yiddish heritage. As part of his initiative as chair of the organization "The Next Generation - Lovers of Yiddish," the Israeli Knesset enacted the National Authority for Yiddish Culture Law in 1996. Since 2001, Galay has chaired Beit Leyvik, which houses Israel's sole publishing house dedicated to Yiddish books. Beit Leyvik aims to bridge Israeli identity with modern Ashkenazi identity, envisioning a connection between young generations and the cultural richness of all communities in Israel.'

Writing

As a poet and playwright, Galay has written in both Yiddish and Hebrew. His play Ha-Mekubalismos was performed at the 1987 Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre in Hebrew and in Spanish by "Ha-Miklet Theater Company." In 1993, he published the Hebrew play Muscles. In 1994, his Yiddish poetry book Oyer Silhouetten was published by Hemshekh Dor Libhobers fun Yiddish. Galay also served on the editorial board of the Yiddish journal Naye Vegn in Israel (1999–2005).

Chamber Operas

• Chaim Ben Chaya
• Itsche Heistir
• Bride and Groom from Nemirov
• Green Time

Works for Chamber groups and Narrator

• The Twins – based on a text by Avraham Sutzkever, from The Green Aquarium; translated into Hebrew, English, French, and German.
• In the Kingdom of the Cross – based on a text by Uri Zvi Greenberg; Yiddish, translated into Hebrew.
• What, Is He Still Alive? – based on a text by Zvi Kanar; selections from various books; Yiddish, translated into Hebrew and English.
• Stories of Chełm
• Open Door – based on a text by Salomon Simon; Yiddish, translated into Hebrew and English.
• Teltze – based on a text by Salomon Simon; Yiddish, translated into Hebrew.
• Folk Tales
• Happiness – based on a text by Yitzhok Yanosovitch; Yiddish, translated into Hebrew and English.
• Rabbi Israel – from Jewish Ethnography and Folklore by Avraham Rechtman, based on S. An-sky's expedition; Yiddish, translated into Hebrew and English.

Discography

• Klezcontrol – Klezmer Tunes with a Classical Touch; published with sheet music (Or-Tav Publishing).
• Orchestral Works – Music "Box", In Memoriam, The Klezmer's Notes.
• Maynses un Klangn - Stories and Sounds – Music and texts based on Jewish folklore including Chelm stories.
• Sounds for Remembrance – Holocaust-themed music featuring Moshe Liba and Daniel Galay.
• Moderna Plus – Works for strings and songs for mezzo-soprano.
• Classical Klezmer – featuring clarinetist Michele Gingras and pianist Ron Matson. A recording of Klezmer Tunes with a Classical Touch 2.

Poetry Books

• Oyer-Siluetten Lider (Ear Silhouettes), illustrated by Montaniez, published by Hemshekh Dor Libhobers fun Yiddish (1994).

Theater

• Muscles – play in Hebrew, Ophir Publishing (1993)
• For Fun, In Earnest, and In Between – satire and cabaret, H. Leyvik Publishing (2013)
• Three Plays in Yiddish-Hebrew – Two Weddings, Winter Rules Here, Concerns (2017)
• Abush and Zoshke, H. Leyvik Publishing (2019).
• A Tale with a Bundle – Four plays including A Tale with a Bundle, Dance in Flipport, Black and White , Counterpoint (2017)
• Promenade de Luxe (Shpazir de Luxe) – plays in Yiddish, H. Leyvik Publishing (2024)

Children's Books

• Mom, Am I Ashkenazi? – Hebrew and Yiddish (2002).
• Pinkes Chelm – Yiddish, illustrated by Volf Bulba, Olniansky Tekst Sweden (2020).
• A Story for Children about Two Barbers – Yiddish, illustrated by Melita Kraus, H. Leyvik Publishing (2023)

Essays

• Town Square – Before and After: 20 Years Since the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (2015).
• The Ashkenazi Option (2022).

External links

• Daniel Galay in Israel Composer League
• Daniel Galay in Cernowitz Corporation
• Daniel Galay in UT Orpheus
• Daniel Galay in Yiddish oral history
• Interview with Daniel Galay, Yiddish in Israel and Other Topics

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• Jewish Israeli writers
• Jewish Israeli musicians