SCHIDLOWSKY, LEON

SCHIDLOWSKY, LEON (1931– ), Israeli composer. Born in Santiago, Chile, Schidlowsky first studied piano and later harmony and composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Santiago. He continued his studies in Germany (1952–55). Returning to Chile, he was active in promoting contemporary music and in 1967 became professor of composition at the University of Chile. He immigrated to Israel in 1969 and was appointed professor of composition at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. Schidlowsky was in charge of musical education at the Hebrew Institute in Santiago, and a number of his works dating from that time express the recent sufferings of the Jewish people – Kristallnacht Symphony, Lamentation, Memento, Kaddish, and others. In Israel he wrote Babi Yar, for piano, percussion, and strings (1970); Serenata, for chamber orchestra (1970); and Rabbi Akiva, for soloists, choir, and orchestra (1972). His work Dadayamasong, a dramatic scene for voice, clarinet, alto saxophone, cello, piano, and percussion, received a prize at the UNESCO International Composer's Rostrum (1976). He wrote in a variety of styles, from atonality to aleatory and graphic compositions, and was one of the most dedicated and consistent representatives of the innovative avant-garde in Israel. -ADD. BIBGLIOGRAPHY: NG2; A. Tischler, A Descriptive Bibliography of Art Music by Israeli Composers (1989), 203–18. (Uri (Erich) Toeplitz and Yohanan Boehm / Jehoash Hirshberg (2nd ed.)