Fred Israel is a composer, improvisational musician, and music producer hailing from New York City. Fred’s extensive work in jazz, live improvisation, composition for mixed media, and solo recordings, explores the cutting edge of contemporary and experimental sound and music. With an emphasis on collaboration, Fred Israel works with numerous musical and mixed media artists. Fred’s score for animator George Griffin’s 1975 film short “Head” launched further work in film and television. His music is commissioned by dance companies such as NYC-based companies Jean Erdman Dance and Nancy Allison Dance, and San Francisco’s ODC Dance Collective, as well as improvisational piano for the dance departments at UCLA and Santa Monica College. With a degrees in composition from Oberlin College and electronic music from Cal State Northridge, Fred continued his musical education under the tutelage of American avant-garde artist and composer La Monte Young as well as Kirana Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath who exposed him to Indian ragas, the series of notes upon which classical Indian music is based. This new way of hearing and thinking about music, combined with Israel’s self-taught mastery of jazz, has become the building block of his musical career. As of 2012, Fred is undertaking an invitation from Parma Recordings to record “Moan No More” for mixed chorus by the Kuhn Choir. This text builds consonants and vowels into words, organically forming syllables, phrases and sentences as meaning unfolds throughout the piece. Previous recordings include: “Now Showing At A Theater Near You” (2006) self-released fringe-pop songs with vocals, and “Music for Fingers” (2011) a collection of seven spontaneously composed performances, using resonant piano. from http://assetsforartists.org
