Speaking with Yehuda Yannay

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Photo: Yehuda Yannay - yehudayannay.com

Yehuda Yannay

Yehuda Yannay

Yehuda Yannay, composer-conductor, multimedia artist, performer-film maker, is a good friend and we often have coffee together, discussing life, literature, music and current events when all too often the coffee goes cold. I was delighted when the Shepherd Express asked me to do a feature article on him and he agreed. Naturally we arranged to have coffee.

Yannay was born in 1937 in Timisoara, Romania. Miraculously his family survived the war, immigrating to Israel in 1951. He attended an elite agricultural high school. Having resumed piano studies, he was asked to write music for theatrical plays and discovered he was a natural composer. After serving as a criminal investigator with the Israeli Defense Force, Yannay enrolled in the Rubin Music Academy in Tel Aviv. In 1959 he began private studies with Alexander Uriah Boskovich, a leading modernistic and original Israeli composer, who immediately introduced him to 20th century composition techniques. 

A Fulbright Fellowship in 1964 permitted him to come to the United States where he continued his composition studies at Brandeis University (MFA-1966). He returned to Israel where he was a Dean at the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv (1966 and 1968). After participating in the Six-day War, he attended the University of Illinois-Champaign earning his DMA in 1974. 

Music From Almost Yesterday

He joined the music faculty of UW-Milwaukee in 1970, retiring as a Professor of Composition in 2004. Yehuda founded the concert series Music from Almost Yesterday in 1971 which continues. Often these concerts feature his own compositions, some with the ink barely dry.

Wikipedia describes his early use of  “avant-garde innovations in music: serialism, open-ended form, graphic notation, and new sound materials generated through electroacoustic devices.” It also discusses the various musical “periods” of his compositions and styles.

Recently I attended a tribute, Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Jane M. Bowers, where they performed his composition Not a Gentle Exit for two Baroque flutes written especially for this program. I teased and asked him if this means he’s come full-circle and to comment on his compositional journey in general. “Coming full-circle is like returning to a place I have been before. I do think that way about my creative process which I hope will stay open-ended,” Yannay said.

His written pieces, commissioned and otherwise, have premiered regionally with our own MSO and the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and internationally with the Festival Musica Nova in Santos, Brazil. Here’s what he had to say about classical composers finding traction in the modern world of Tic Tok, Spotify, and You Tube: “Spotify and You Tube are very helpful devices to allow others to hear and see your music in performance. It is almost incumbent on composers to both record and video their pieces these days. One can also use Facebook as a way to show and tell what projects you are working on and to invite the audience to live performances of your music.”

House Concerts

In Milwaukee, the Hawthorne Contemporary Gallery on Fifth Street at Walker's Point, often hosts his House Concerts. Music from Almost Yesterday at UWM will continue. I asked about the coming season and if there are any other regional venues that will feature his compositions.

Recently Yannay’s written many compositions in close collaboration with the bayan/accordion virtuoso Stas Venglevski and received commission from the Ancia Saxophone Quartet in Minneapolis. “For Stas I wrote recently a Symphony for Solo Accordion in four movements that celebrates our professional and personal friendship of 30 years,” he said. “It will be presented at our next House Concert in September 2023.

At this moment I am working on a possible theatrical and film realization of an important Hungarian novel in Hungary. It will be in Hungarian. I’ll post updates on my Facebook page if this project goes forth.”

Curious about the musical creative process, I asked about his inspirations: did he “hear” tunes and did these come with particular voices, e.g., for bayan, saxophone or harp. “I have a pretty clear general idea before I start a new piece but not necessarily particular tunes,” he said. “I discover the details as I compose and most of the time I want to surprise myself with what is actually coming up. It is like digging up one’s own musical unconscious. Hoping to find smidgens of musical gold.

With this in mind I went to his website, www.yehudayannay.com and found compositions that recently premiered.

“The Center Does Not Hold,” premiered by the Ancia Saxophone Quartet in 2018 in Minneapolis. I’ve heard them in Milwaukee several times playing music by Yannay and I find the tonalities at least as interesting as that of the traditional string quartet. They’ll be back as they enjoy working with our local composer. 

“Mayeem (Water),” was premiered by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Choir in 2016. “The Exquisite Bassoon,” was premiered by Monte Perkins in 2017. “Hornology” with local hornist Gregory Flint is exquisite. The Gutmann-Maile Ensemble Berlin premiered “Berlin Music” for string trio in 2018.

There’s never a final word, but here’s what he had to offer in conclusion. “I wish to continue to wake up every morning with an appetite for creative work.”

"Symphony for Solo Accordion” for Stas Venglevski, 

House Concert  2 p.m. Sept. 17, at Hawthorne Contemporary Gallery, 706 S. Fifth. Admission is free.

Wedlocked by Debra Zarne, a music-film based on a movement of Yannay’s composition "In Tandem” screening at the Milwaukee International Short Film Festival, 6:30 p.m., Sept. 9, Avalon Atmospheric Theater, 2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave.