Tamar Muskal
{{Short description|Israeli-American composer (born 1965)}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox biography
| native_name = תמר מוסקל
| native_name_lang = he
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1965}}
| birth_place = Jerusalem, Israel
| occupation = Composer
| awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (2009)
| alma_mater = {{ublist|
}}
| spouse = Danny Rozin
| module2 = {{Infobox musical artist
| embed = yes
| genre = Contemporary classical music
}}
}}
Tamar Muskal ({{Langx|he|תמר מוסקל}}; born 1965) is an Israeli-American composer. She received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her 2005 piece The Yellow Wind. She was composer-in-residence for the Westchester Philharmonic and is a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow.
Biography
Tamar Muskal was born in Jerusalem in 1965 and obtained her BA from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She and her husband emigrated to the United States, where she went on to do her master studies at Yale University and the City University of New York.{{Cite news |last=Hershenson |first=Roberta |date=2005-05-08 |title=A Musical Bridge For the Mideast |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/433070249 |id={{ProQuest|433070249}} |work=New York Times |page=WC8}} Her teachers include Mark Kopytman, Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, Ezra Laderman, David Del Tredici, Tania Leon, and Paul Lustig Dunkel.
In 2005, she premiered The Yellow Wind, her hour-long Westchester Philharmonic commission themed after Israel–Palestine relations, at the State University of New York at Purchase Performing Arts Center; Anne Midgette of The New York Times called it "a huge opener for a large-scale program".{{Cite news |last=Midgette |first=Anne |date=2005-05-16 |title=Strike Up the Band for Peace |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/92941399 |work=New York Times |page=E5|id={{ProQuest|92941399 }}}} She also received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for The Yellow Wind. When her piece Mirrors, commissioned by Eighth Blackbird, was performed in Pittsburgh in February 2008, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review review said that "music from Alfred Hitchcock's film Spellbound must have been playing in Muskal's mind when she wrote one section of this piece".{{Cite news |last=Kanny |first=Mark |date=2008-02-13 |title=Theatrical blackbird makes solid chamber society debut |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/382421045 |work=Pittsburgh Tribune-Review |id={{ProQuest|382421045 }}}}
She composed "Mar de Leche", the third track of Maya Beiser's 2010 album Provenance.{{Cite web |title=Provenance |url=https://innova.mu/album/provenance/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Innova® Recordings}} She and Barbara Harbach provided original scores for a 2016 Women in Film & Television screening of some of Alice Guy-Blaché's silent films.{{Cite news |last=Barry |first=John W. |title=Upstate Films to showcase female pioneer of film |url=https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/entertainment/2016/12/09/upstate-films-showcase-female-pioneer-film/95206842/ |access-date=2025-05-07 |work=Poughkeepsie Journal}} She did the last tracks of the four-composer flute album Alive in the Studio.{{Cite magazine |last=Moore |first=David W |date=2017 |title=Alive in the Studio |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1874041141 |magazine=American Record Guide|id={{ProQuest|1874041141}}|volume=80 |issue=1 |p=192}} She composed "Where Do We Belong? A Conversation with Bach" in the album New for Violin & Piano; the American Record Guide said that "Muskal's intellectual conversation with Bach is palpable here".{{Cite magazine |year=2018 |title=New for Violin & Piano |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2097554972 |magazine=American Record Guide |pages=213–214 |id={{ProQuest|2097554972 }} |volume=81 |issue=4}}
In 2017, she did a piece commemorating Sojourner Truth, commissioned by Close Encounters With Music. Another Close Encounters With Music commission, One Earth, premiered in November 2022 after being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.{{Cite news |last=Smullen |first=Sharon |date=2022-10-27 |title=The pandemic twice postponed the debut of Israeli composer Tamar Muskal's 'One Earth.' It's now set as Close Encounters With Music's season opener |url=https://www.berkshireeagle.com/arts_and_culture/berkshirelandscapes/close-encounters-with-music-tamar-muskal-one-world/article_638e6abe-553c-11ed-9097-f3011b9d5f95.html |access-date=2025-05-07 |work=The Berkshire Eagle}}
She spent years as composer-in-residence for the Westchester Philharmonic education program. In 2009, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.{{Cite web |title=Tamar Muskal |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/tamar-muskal/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Guggenheim Fellowship}}
As of 2001, Muskal was a resident of Manhattan. She holds dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her husband is artist Danny Rozin, with whom she collaborated for her Eighth Blackbird commission.{{Cite news |last=von Rhein |first=John |date=2007-10-19 |title=eighth blackbird hopes to build a local following |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/232186262/ |work=Chicago Tribune |page=7–18 |via=Newspapers.com}}
References
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Category:21st-century Israeli women composers
Category:21st-century Israeli classical composers
Category:Israeli women classical composers
Category:21st-century American women composers
Category:21st-century American classical composers
Category:American women classical composers
Category:Israeli emigrants to the United States
Category:Composers from Jerusalem