Jonathan Bar-Giora

Biography

Jonathan Bar Giora (born July 8, 1962) is an Israeli composer and pianist. Since 2000, Bar Giora has composed over 150 Israeli films, such as Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi, Time of Favor, Queen Shoshana, You only Die Twice and more. He also worked as a composer, arranger and producer with Israeli performers such as Yossi Banai, Miri Mesika, Shalom Chanoch, Meir Banai, Rita, Riki Gal and many others. Between 2011-2015 Bar Giora served as the head of the soundtrack department at the Sapir Academic College, where we continues to teach as a senior lecturer. He also lectures at Beit Berl's film school and at the Maaleh School of Film and Television. 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. In 1994 he created "Sea of Blues"' - an evening of bluesy and jazzy covers to middle eastern hits. The rest of the 90s were dedicated to theater music and TV live performances (Musical Director of Ad Eser, a weekly talk show, and many others). In 1999 he wrote the music for Pgisha Le'eiyn 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 150 movie scores (TV dramas and documentaries included) which were created by Bar Giora since. In 2018 the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem & Haifa Cinematheques held a special tribute to his musical work for films and television. That same year "Helicon Music" released the album "Themes" , the first anthology of music composed by Bar Giora for the movies. It was the first in a series of over 10 soundtrack albums composed by Bar Giora to be released by "Helicon Music" Early in 2020 the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra Ashdod dedicated a concert to Bar Giora's works titled "Soundtrack of the Heart". Early 2021 saw the release of "Sharim Tfilayla" - an album arranged and produced by Bar Giora, starring some of Israel's leading performers, such as Ninet, Shalom Chanoch, Ester Rada, Miri Mesika, Alon Eder and others.