Eldad Tsabary is a Montréal based composer and sound artist whose music is inspired by the concepts of sound-mass, metamorphosis, and constant motion. His works have been played at Carnegie Hall, CCRMA, and ISCM among others and performed by The Bulgarian Philharmonic, Silvie Jensen, the Cygnus Ensemble, Haim Avitsur, and others. He is the winner of several prizes, including the Harbourfront Centre New Canadian Sound Work 2006, a third prize at ZKM’s competition Shortcuts:Beauty 2006, and a selection in Madrid Abierto’s Public Art Project Competition 2007. Eldad is a professor of electronic art-music at Concordia University in Montréal and an Artist Mentor for the MFA in New Media Program of the Transart Institute (Krems, Austria). His music has been released on ERMMedia, Capstone Records, New Adventures in Sound Art and JAZZIS among others and published by Editions BIM (Switzerland). He studied composition under David Loeb, David Del Tredici, David Olan, and Tim Brady and theory under Carl Schachter, Philip Rupprecht and Philip Lambert.

August 1, 2006 at 6:37 pm • Filed under SIP

Interview: 10 answers
1.
Question:
When did you start making music, what is/was your motivation to do it?
Answer:
I started learning music at the age of six with the encouragement of my
parents and composed my first songs at 12; through the years I had
motivational ups and downs but at the age of 13 I chose to take up on the
flute seriously after hearing a friend of my brother play an amazing flute.
At the age of 22 while relaxing by myself and my flute in a remote corner in
the forests of the Yukon I realized how much joy music making gave me and
finally understood I wanted music as a career. Another big motivation was
King Crimson - a great teenage love of mine.
2.
Question:
Tell me something about your living environment and the musical
education.
Answer:
Until my early twenties I grew up in Petach Tiqva, Israel, studied at my
hometown’s conservatory and participated in various local events and
festivals. After my Yukon trip I came back to study at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemp. Music in Israel which opened me up to Jazz and to the
great possibilities outside of Israel. At 26 I moved to New York where I
switched to a classical training in composition at the Mannes College of
Music and later at CUNY. After 7 years in New York I finally moved to my
new home in Montreal where I studied music technology and later found a
great opportunity to fulfill my other greatest love - teaching - as a
professor at Concordia University’s music program’s electroacoustics studies
area.
3.
Question:
Is making music your profession? What is the context in which you practice
music nowadays?
Answer:
Yes. I feel very privileged to have my compositions performed, broadcasted, released and published (instrumental, acousmatic and sound art), to perform as a flutist and teach music to great talents.
4.
Question:
How do you compose or create music or sound? Have you certain principles,
use certain styles etc?
Answer:
Hmmm. I thought about that quite a bit. My conclusion was that my main
principles are to treat every creation individually as a new being and not
fall into patterns. My guidelines in general terms have been “experiment!”,”don’t fear failure,” “be playful,” “be honest,” “be efficient.”
5.
Question:
Tell me something about the instruments, technical equipment or tools you use?
Answer:
I use the computer quite a bit. For my instrumental works I notate on
Finale and for my sound art and acousmatic works I use a variety of software
(constantly upgrading). Currently I mix my sounds using KRK studio
monitors, Audio Technica headphones and an M-Audio sound card. Through the years I have been experimenting with phase shifts, signal processing and automation, and convolution.

His works have been recorded and performed by the Bulgarian Philharmonic, Haim Avitsur, The Cygnus Ensemble, Silvie Jensen and Yuval Cohen among others.Performances include Carnegie Hall, CCRMA, “Primavera en la Habana 2004″ (Cuba), Spark Festival, Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival 2005 (Bellingham, Washington), and Burning Man Festival 2004 and 2005 among many others.
Mr. Tsabary’s music is released on ERMMedia, Capstone Records, New Adventures in Sound Art, JAZZIS, The Infinite Sector, comfortstand.com and SoundLab Channel, and published by Editions-BIM (Switzerland).
Tsabary is a professor at the Concordia University Music Department Electroacoustics Studies (Montreal, Quebec), Head of Music at CBB Montreal and an Artist Mentor for the MFA in New Media Program of the Transart Institute (Krems, Austria).