I started studying classical piano as a child, but quickly developed a deeper interest in improvisation and composition. A few years later when I switched to the clarinet and the Alto Saxophone, I discovered in Jazz & Middle Eastern music, a natural vehicle for my emerging voice.
When I studied with the great player Albert Piamenta, I was exposed to the system of makams and microtones for the first time. It took years but eventually I got Into the G Clarinet and the Alto Saxophone, focusing on Middle Eastern music.
I studied music with Opher Brayer, focusing on continuity in improvisation.
At the same time, I studied composition at the "Rimon" school for Jazz and Contemporary music in Israel.
I was lucky to perform and record with some of the best musicians in Israel. I also composed the music for several theatre productions and theatre-movement shows and wrote scores for a variety of movies and television programs. But I felt that I need to keep on with my studies so in 1998 right after I released my first solo record, Various, I moved to New York.
In New York, I joined the band, Hypnotica and I also played for the theatre production "No Exit" by Jean Paul Sartre, and performed on the score for the feature film "First We Take Manhattan." I performed in different venues around the city.
I continued my composition studies with Professor Edward Green and later I enrolled in the New School Jazz and Contemporary Program where I got my B.F.A in Performance, studying on scholarship with teachers such as Jane Ira Bloom, Jim Snidero, Billy Harper, George Garzone, Jamey Haddad and Steve Wilson. While continuing my studies, I performed with my Middle Eastern trio.
In 2001, I Joined the Kokolo Afro Beat Orchestra and became the Musical Director for their debut Album Fuss and Fight. One of my compositions for the band, "Jerusalem," was released in Europe on a compilation CD for "Big Daddy" Magazine, and for me as a student that was a great compliment.
In the spring of 2002 I formed my own band, ANISTAR. My vision was to reemerge traditional Middle Eastern & Mediterranean music by infusing it with harmonic and formal elements of Jazz.
These days I started to be really busy recording and performing, composing and arranging. Performing on the G Clarinet (Turkish Clarinet) the Alto saxophone. I forged a singular and unique voice from the diversity of my experience and influences.
I took my inspiration from the foremost iconoclasts and innovators in each idiom I explored-- from Jazz and Be-Bop to Klezmer, Gypsy, Mediterranean, North African and Middle-Eastern music; from Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy and Henry Thredgill to Samir Srour (the Egyptian saxophonist) and the great Turkish clarinetists, Mustafa Kandirali, Sukru Tunar and Suffet Gundeger. Another inspiration is my main teacher, Souren Baronian, the great G-Clarinet player. Thanks to him I started to get deeper and deeper into Turkish music.
For around six years I studied Middle Eastern music with Souren Baronian I also traveled to Turkey to take lessons with different Gypsy Musicians and different teachers.
in 2002 I graduated and became a faculty member at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, where I was the Director of the World Music/Middle Eastern Ensemble.
I recorded and performed with many bands and artists around New York, including my Middle Eastern Jazz Trio, Agada, The Skye Steele Quintet, The MEJ Trio, Klezska, the Cardamon Quartet and my Middle Eastern Orchestra, ANISTAR. I performed in venues such as The Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, Tichman Hall, Tonic, Sweet Rhythm, The Knitting Factory, Joe's Pub, The NJPAC, The J.C.C. Makor and The Cutting Room, just to name few.
I was featured on the Film score for the movie “Pretty persuasion” Directed by Marcus Siega featuring James Wood & Selma Blair. I also recorded and composed few more scores for short films.
Continuing to explore the music of the Middle East. Getting more and more into the Turkish Makam, it took few years before I decided to go back to the source, back to the Middle East, dedicating my self to the traditional music and to the Turkish Clarinet.
At the end of 2009, I moved back to Israel with my family.
Since than I teach at the CJS in Tel Aviv in the Israeli Conservatory. I perform and record with many artists and I have few projects that I perform Middle Eastern music on a regular base such as The Ottomans, ANISTAR and Turkika. I also performs Workshops on the subjects of "The Art of the Middle Eastern Makam" and "The Music of the Middle East" and "The Turkish Workshop."
