Yehuda Yannay (b. May 26, 1937 in Timisoara, Romania) is an Israeli-American
composer, conductor, and media artist whose work includes music for orchestra,
electronic, live electronic and synthesizer pieces, environmental compositions,
film, music-theater, and a large body of vocal and chamber music pieces.
Immigrating to Israel in 1951 where he studied with Boskovitch, Yannay settled
permanently in the USA in 1968 after a Fulbright Fellowship at Brandeis University.
Yannay is a graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music (Tel-Aviv) and Brandeis
University, and holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois in
Champaign-Urbana. In 1970 he joined the Composition Department at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) where he is currently (2010) emeritus professor of
music.
Considered an international figure in contemporary music, Yannay's contributions to
new ideas in 20th-century music are listed in numerous articles, textbooks and
encyclopedias of music. A wide array of his works for instruments, voices and
electronics are found on the Innova and Electronic Music Foundation labels. He has
also served as a guest professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in
Stuttgart and Hamburg. In 1971 at UWM, Yannay founded the Music From Almost
Yesterday concert series, which is dedicated to the regular presentation of
avante-garde and contemporary music.
