Avi Benjamin

Avi Benjamin was born as Avi Nedzvetsky in Tallinn Estonia. His father was a professor of psychology at the University of Tartu and his mother was a physician. At age of 4, Benjamin started to learn piano in Tartu, and when he was 15 his family moved to Tallinn, where he continued his studies at the Musical College with the pianist and teacher Renate Goznaya. After graduation from the college he was accepted to the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater. At the academy, Benjamin was studying piano under professor Bruno Lukk (himself a student of Arthur Schnabel and Paul Hindemith) and Toivo Nahkur. Among his teachers were also pianist Anna Klas and composer Jaan Rääts.

In February 1991, Benjamin moved to Israel and eventually settled in Jerusalem. Soon after arrival he was approached by Slava Maltzev and Yevgeny Arye – founders of the Gesher Theater and asked to join a new theater as its “house composer”. At this time he adopted “Benjamin” as his last name as a tribute to his father. His first work for Gesher was a music to the “Dreyfus Case”, which was followed by the “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”, both directed by Yevgeny Arye. In his twenty years as a composer and a conductor with Gesher, Benjamin wrote music to more than 30 plays. In his theatrical work, Benjamin explored and often combined various musical styles: from rock to jazz to klezmer to name a few. In particular, Benjamin composed music to the play “Adam – the Son of Dog” (Hebrew: אדם בן כלב‎) based on the book of the same name by Yoram Kaniuk (translated in English as “Adam Resurrected”) and directed by Yevgeny Arye. The play, staged in the circus tent especially built for this performance, became the signature of the theater and the basis of documentary “Adam’s Circus"[3] directed by Lihi Hanoch. In 1997, Benjamin was awarded the Meir Margalit Prize for his work with Gesher.

The musical “Devil in Moscow” after the famous classical novel “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov became another highlight in Benjamin’s theatrical career. In 2001, he won Israeli Theater Award as the best composer for this work. The musical became the most outspoken event of the 2000-2001 theatrical season and its cast included famous Israeli actors Chaim Topol and Sassi Keshet among others.