The Cross-Disciplinary Composition Department was established to provide young creators with the opportunity to pursue high-level academic music studies. Like the department’s founders and faculty members, these students approach the art of music through a pluralistic perspective, free from narrow confinement to any single style or musical direction. The dramatic transformation of the world in terms of multicultural influences on art and on life in general—especially over recent decades—has rendered distinctions such as “serious music,” “light music,” “classical,” “jazz,” “film music,” “folk,” and the like increasingly irrelevant.

In our view, young musicians should be exposed to as broad a range as possible of styles, artistic directions, and professional skills, alongside in-depth specialization in the core elements of music. We also believe in the importance of nurturing the performer aspect of the young creator, in the spirit of the composer-performer model that characterized European music in earlier eras, as well as many non-European musical traditions. All of this places greater demands and challenges on students in the Department of Multidisciplinary Composition than are typically encountered elsewhere; however, it also promises a fascinating, diverse, and empowering experience for talented, creative, open-minded, and curious students.

Among the graduates of the Department of Multidisciplinary Composition are leading musicians who have developed successful musical careers in Israel and abroad as composers, conductors, performers, independent creators, and senior educators in the field of music.