Jonathan Bar-Giora

Jonathan Bar Giora (born July 8, 1962) is an Israeli composer and pianist. Since 2000, Bar Giora has composed scores and soundtracks for over 100 Israeli films, such as Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi, Time of Favor, The Debt and Aviva My Love. He also worked as a composer with Israeli performers such as Yossi Banai, Rita and Rickie Gal. Bar Giora is the head of the soundtrack department at the Sapir Academic College, and also lectures at the Maale Film School. At age 16, Bar Giora started playing Jazz in local clubs. All through the 1980s he played jazz and wrote music-related articles for the local press. In 1990 he staged a one man show "I'd be delighted to meet you after the plague", which he wrote, composed and performed (Director: Shlomo Vazana). A secondary character in that show, Michel Clayderlast, became successful when Bar Giora created "Live Elevator Music". A performance-art show debuted at the 1990 Israel Festival, featuring Clayderlast playing 20-second bits of popular music live inside an elevator (20 seconds being the average time elevator users spend inside). In 1991 he staged Erua Mochi, a rock spectacle presenting a new musical style: "Live Acid". The band, led by Bar Giora, played looped music live in an attempt to reduce fears among live musicians, in a time when increasingly popular electronic and sampled music threatened to wipe all their job opportunities. 1992 was dedicated to Jesse's Carnival, a gloomy cabaret show with singer-songwriter Jonathan Licht. In 1993, Bar Giora created a Fringe theatre show named Entebbe- The Musical with Etgar Keret. Bar Giora composed all of the songs and original score, and the show won first prize at Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre. The rest of the 90s were dedicated to theater music, TV work (Musical Director of Ad Eser, a weekly talk show with Merav Michaeli, music for Meni Peer's TV show, and many others). In 1999 he wrote the music for Pgisha Leiyn Kets, a special CD dedicated to the poetry of Nathan Alterman, read by Israeli actor Yossi Banai. That same year he composed Joseph Cedar's feature film Time of Favor. It was a first in a series of more than 100 movie scores (TV dramas and documentaries included) which were created by Bar Giora through the 2000s.