An Israeli composer born January 3, 1978 in Haifa (Israel).
A pianist by training, Ofer Pelz obtained a master’s degree in composition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (2008). He took advanced studies in composition and electronic composition at the Blanc-Mesnil Conservatory, notably with Philippe Leroux, Thierry Blondeau and Gilles Racot, as well as at the Paris Conservatory. He also followed the courses of the Centre Acanthes and the composition workshop devoted to new technologies of Ircam’s ManiFeste Academy (2012). In 2018 he obtained a doctorate in music composition at Montreal University under the direction of Ana Sokolovic, Caroline Traube and Robert Normandeau.
An admirer of composers such as Witold Lutoslawski, György Ligeti, Gérard Grisey and Beat Furrer, Pelz creates sound worlds with minimal and combined musical means, with silences, and also a concept he defines as ‘unstable repetition’: a succession of fragments that vary from repetition to repetition. Ofer Pelz composes works for various formations, from solo instrument to chamber orchestra, with or without electroacoustics, and he has also collaborated with several film directors and choreographers. His works include Convergence for flute and electronics, first performed by Cédric Jullion at the Blanc-Mesnil Conservatory (2010); Blanc sur blanc for flute, clarinet, piano and string quartet, commissioned and first performed by the Zeitkunst Festival and the Meitar Ensemble conducted by Renaud Déjardin in Berlin (2011); Do bats eat cats? for instrumental ensemble, commissioned by The Israel Contemporary Players and the Ernst Von Siemens Foundation (2011); Climax (ou Éléments) for chamber orchestra, commissioned and first performed by the Geneva Camerata (2016); Repetition Blindness for piano, commissioned by David Greilsammer (2017); 172, choreographic music, first performed at the Baryshnikov Arts Center of New York (2018); Sound tracks for free instrumentation and video interface, first performed by the ensemble Aka in Montreal (2019).
Ofer Pelz is also an improviser within the Whim Ensemble, along with the percussionist Preston Beebe.
