Marc Lavry

Marc Lavry, conducting the opera "Dan HaShomer", December 10, 1945, Tel-Aviv

Marc Lavry (Hebrew: מרק לברי‎) (December 22, 1903, Riga – March 24, 1967, Haifa) was an Israeli composer and conductor.

Lavry began his musical studies in Riga and continued at Leipzig conservatory. He also studied with Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer and music teacher. In 1926 he moved to Berlin and worked for the Theater. From 1929 to 1932 he served as a conductor of the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra. The rise of Nazism caused him to return to Latvia in 1933, where he worked at the Riga Opera. In 1934 he moved to Stockholm, Sweden and in 1935 emigrated to Israel (Palestine at that time).

In 1936, one year after his arrival he composed the first Israeli symphonic poem Valley (Hebrew: עמק‎, Emek) – one of his most popular pieces. It represented an Israeli music in the first world tour of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lavry's works, including operas, oratorio, and symphonic poems, are influenced by oriental folk music and Jewish cantillation. Together with choreographer Gertrud Kraus, Lavry developed the art of dance and Israel ballet. The oratory "Song of Songs" (Hebrew: שיר השירים‎, shir ha-shirim) has been performed many times and Lavry's choral music and arias have become part of the repertoire of choirs and singers in Israel and abroad. Lavry was not only a prolific composer in all spheres of vocal and instrumental music but also a gifted conductor, who performed with all the orchestras in the country during that period.

In 1962 he received an invitation from Abba Hushi, the mayor of Haifa who encouraged well-known artists to move to the city by allocating free apartments for them. Lavry moved to Haifa and served as Haifa Symphonic Orchestra conductor.

He died in Haifa on 24 March, 1967.

See also

• List of Israeli classical composers

External links

• Personal Archive – at the Jewish National Library web site.
• Freedman Catalog – list of works (probably, partial)
• The Jewish Choral Music Database – partial list of choral works
• Israel Music Institute – short biography