Sergiu Natra

Sergiu Natra (born 12 April 1924, Romania) is a Romanian and Israeli classical music composer of Israelian and international reputation. In 1961, Natra and his wife, Sonia, emigrated to Israel.

He is known for his compositions for the harp which are performed all over the world, including "Music for Violin and Harp" (1960), "Sonatina" (1963), "Prayer" (1970), "Divertimento for Harp and Strings" (1974), "Music for Nicanor" (1988), "Sonata in One Movement" (1999), "Commentaires Sentimentaux" (2002) and "Trio in One Movement no. 3" (2006).

Sergiu Natra is a Romanian-born (1924) in a family originating in Austria and the Czech Republic. As a child he studied piano and music and began particular music studies in 1932, continued at the Jewish conservatory (1942) and graduated from the Music Academy of Bucharest (1954). He studied, among others, theory, composition and orchestration with Leon Klepper and modern music with Michael Andricu.

He began composing at an early age and his work from 1943 for orchestras, called "March and Chorale", earned him the status of a modernist in Romania. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed this work in 1947 under the direction of Edward Lindenberg. For this work and for the "Divertimento in ancient style" from 1943, he received the George Enescu award for composition, 1945 and Romanian State prize for composition, 1951.

In 1961, Natra and his wife, Sonia, a sculptor and a multidisciplinary artist, emigrated to Israel. A year later, conducted by Sergiu Comissiona, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performed the "Symphony no. II for string orchestra", which was the last piece he had written in Romania, and the "Music for violin and harp", performed by the violinist Miriam Fried and the French harpist Françoise Netter.

Besides composing music, Natra taught music. In 1975, Natra was a guest professor at Tel-Aviv University, where he taught music of the 20th century, composition, and analysis of forms. He was a professor at the Tel-Aviv Music Academy until 1985. Among his hundreds of students were Lior Shambadal, Rafi Kadishson (composer and conductor), Erel Paz, Ruben Seroussi, Deborah Rothstein Schramm, Dror Elimelech (composers), Yehonatan Berick (violinist), Sally Pinkas, Eugene Alcalay, Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg, Dr. Eran Lupu (pianists), Yoni Farhi (Pianist and conductor) and many others. See: List of music students by teacher: N to Q#Sergiu Natra.

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