About

Itay Dvori’s musical works are characterized by extraordinary originality. In 2013, after his training as a composer, conductor and pianist, as well as several years of professional experience in a great variety of musical fields, Itay Dvori decided to focus on composition and improvisation on piano. Both have been passions of his since his first music lesson at the age of 10. Since then, his projects and performances at international festivals have attracted considerable attention. 

In 2016 he formed the yam yabasha ensemble, with the aim of developing new improvisation projects. In its first programme, the ensemble created original music for the graphic novel Fliegenpapier (Fly Paper) by Hans Hillmann. This comic concert was recognised as “a new genre” by the German cultural radio station Deutschlandradio Kultur. This was also the beginning of a whole series of further comic concerts: as a solo pianist, Itay Dvori has composed and improvised music for more than 50 comics by international illustrators such as Edmond Baudoin, Manuele Fior, Asaf Hanuka, Michel Kichka, Joann Sfar and Shaun Tan. He has performed comic concerts with the ensemble and as a soloist at several festivals and on various stages, e.g. at the Tel Aviv Animix Festival, the Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart, the documenta archiv in Kassel, the Maison de France Berlin and the Poetenfest Erlangen.  

Compositions by Itay Dvori have been performed by several instrumental and vocal ensembles in Europe and Israel, e.g. the Atom String Quartet, the Israel Brass Quintet and the Shahar Choir. He also composes and arranges for theatre, radio and film (e.g. for the German radio stations Deutschlandfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Hessischer Rundfunk, National Geographic and the German theatre company Berliner Ensemble). Itay Dvori has conducted orchestras at numerous concerts, operas and ballets in Israel, Europe, North America and Asia (e.g. the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Tel-Aviv Symphony Orchestra, the Neues Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Musikalische Komödie Leipzig, the Lüneburger Sinfoniker, the FSO Rostock and the Deutsch-Französischer Chor Berlin). In addition, he regularly performs as a pianist with singers, instrumentalists and ensembles. From 2015 to 2021 he has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden, in the last year as an interim professor. Since the winter semester 2018/19 he has been teaching at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.

Israeli by birth, Itay Dvori received his musical training at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv and the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin – he passed both courses with distinction. During this time, he held a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Deutscher Musikrat’s “Dirigentenforum” (“Conductors’ Forum”) funding programme. As well as this period of study, his three years as a pianist and conductor at the Theater Lüneburg and his three years of military service as a pianist and arranger in Israel were particularly influential in his development as a musician.   

Itay Dvori lives with his family in Berlin.