Jan Freidlin

Jan Freidlin was born in Chita, Russia. In 1971 he graduated from the Odessa Conservatory with a degree in composition. He served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Odessa Philharmonic Society Jazz Orchestra. From 1974 until 1990 Freidlin was the head of the music theory and composition department at the famous Stolyarsky Special Music School in Odessa.

The composer is now a professor of composition at the University of Tel-Aviv, Israel. Freidlin has composed music for many television programs, 26 theatre plays and 7 feature films. Many of his works have been performed in Russia, Israel, Germany, Australia, and the U.S. He has won many distinguished awards for composition including the Grand Prix of Warna Cinema Festival for the original music for the movie "The Summer has Begun" (1978) and 1st Prize for his chamber work "Twilight Music" for flute, violin and piano in the 2002 Tampa Bay Composers Forum. In 1995 his cycle for guitar "Letters from Arles" won the second prize at the GFA "Set Piece" competition.

Among his compositions are three symphonies, the ballet "Guernica," a double concerto for flute, piano and strings, several works for chamber orchestra, two string quartets and other chamber music works, several large-scale compositions for piano and many vocal works. Recently, Freidlin's Symphony no.2 has been very successfully performed in Santiago by Chili State Symphony under the direction of M. Haran and his "POEM OF THE CONTRASTS" , commissioned by IPO, was premièred by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta.