Composer Spotlight | Osnat Netzer

Osnat Netzer is an Israeli-born, Chicago-based composer, songwriter, pianist, and educator. She is the Assistant Professor of Composition and Musicianship at DePaul University, a long-time faculty at The Walden School, and taught composition and theory at Harvard University from 2013-2019. Netzer is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Mannes College of Music, and New England Conservatory.

Netzer is a recipient of a Beebe Foundation grant that funded both studies in experimental theater at Universität der Künste in Berlin and the completion of her opera, The Wondrous Woman Within, which was described as “riotously funny” in The New York Times.

Her works have been commissioned and performed by bass David Salsbery Fry, saxophonists Kenneth Radnofsky, Doug O’Connor, and Geoffrey Landman, ensembles such as Patchwork, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Spektral Quartet, and Winsor Music. Her works are published by Edition Peters and earthsongs, and are recorded on Bridge Records.

Featured Chamber Works

Pillars, for alto saxophone and piano (2014), 6’30”

Pillars was commissioned by Geoffrey Landman for the 2014 North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial National Conference.

Pillars, performed by Phil Pierick (alto saxophone) and Kurt Galván (piano). Video © Columbus State University (Columbus, GA). Used with permission.

Meshulashim, for bass clarinet and percussion (2018), 12′

“Netzer’s meshulashim (Hebrew for ‘triangles’) is a hushed yet colorful series of vignettes that use triadic harmonies, melodic contours, and crescendos to explore various ways of representing triangles in music….” – Evan Tiapula, Oberlin Music Journal 

Commissioned by Transient Canvas

Meshulashim, for bass clarinet and percussion, performed by Transient Canvas.

Are You Yet Living?, for tenor saxophone and tenor trombone (2016), 11′

Follow along to the score of Are You Yet Living?, for tenor saxophone and tenor trombone, performed by Ryan Muncy (tenor saxophone) and Michael Lormand (tenor trombone).

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