November 11, 2008

Andre Hajdu, composer

Andre Hajdu was born in Hungary in 1932. He studied at the Liszt Music Academy in Budapest with Szervanszky and Szabo (composition), Szegedi (piano), and Kodaly (ethnomusicology). He was involved in research about the Gypsy  musical culture and published several articles on this subject. In 1955 he won the first prize with his Gypsy Cantata in the World Festival of Youth competition in Warsaw.

In 1956 he emigrated to Paris and continued his studies at the Conservatoire with Darius Milhaud (composition) and Olivier Messiaen (philosophy of music) and obtained the 1st prize in the discipline.
Since 1966 he lives in Jerusalem. He taught at the Tel-Aviv Music Academy (1966-91) and at Bar-Ilan University (since 1970). He served as chairman in the Music Department there and founded a composition department.
In paralel, he studied Jewish Klezmer and Hassidic repertories and published several articles on this subject. As a composer he was and is deeply involved in Jewish topics, not only at the usual folkloristic or liturgical levels but also confronting more abstract subjects of Jewish thought (Oral Law, philosophical books of the Bible) as well as Jewish history.

Many of his works are dedicated to music-teaching, especially piano and theory through a creative approach involving the player in the process of composition. See, for example, his works Milky Way, Art of Piano Playing, Book of Challenges, and the Concerto for 10 Young Pianists. All this activity is connected with the practice of creative teaching at the School for Excellence in Jerusalem, an experimental school with a new approach to music- teaching.

In 1997 Andre Hajdu was awarded the Israel Prize for his oeuvre in composition, research, and teaching.