About
Udi Perlman (b. 1990) is an Israeli composer of contemporary classical music based in Berlin.
Haaretz has described him as one of his country’s “most promising contemporary composers,” praising his “inventiveness and sweeping momentum,” “grand and rich orchestration that retains vitality and clarity,” and the “captivating, surprising, rich, and colorful” quality of his work. The Millbrook Independent wrote of his piano trio Nostos, “That melody has been ringing in my ears over the past twenty-four hours; it provided a delightful conclusion, and I wished to hear the work once more!” Perlman’s music weaves contemporary classical language with the resonance of his Jewish-Israeli heritage. It unfolds through vibrant harmonies and kaleidoscopic textures, revealing hidden beauty in simple gestures through imaginative recontextualization and evocative juxtapositions. Rooted in a love of the Western classical canon, he reimagines its forms and idioms through a distinct cultural lens.
Perlman’s music has been commissioned and performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Symphonieorchester der Universität der Künste Berlin, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, and the Jerusalem Street Orchestra; by ensembles such as Ensemble Modern Academy, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Meitar Ensemble, Israel Contemporary Players, Tacet(i), Tremolo Ensemble, Ensemble Arava, Asambura Ensemble, MultiPiano, Lysander Piano Trio, loadbang, Israeli Chamber Project, Montefiore Ensemble (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), and Duo Shiluv; and by vocal groups including the Yale Glee Club, polyLens Vocal, The Israeli Vocal Ensemble, The Gary Bertini Israeli Choir, Cecilia Ensemble, and The Efroni Choir, among others.
Upcoming projects for the 2025–26 season include commissions from Concierto Ibérico, KIMI Ensemble, and the Jerusalem Music Centre for a new string‑orchestra work, as well as a mandolin solo work for Avi Avital. He will also serve as Composer-in-Residence at the Music as Sanctuary Festival (Landesakademie Ochsenhausen) and the Lumières d’Europe Festival (Weizmann Institute of Science).
Recognitions for his work include the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pogorzelski‑Yankee Award from the American Guild of Organists, the Rena Greenwald Memorial Prize from Yale School of Music, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Composer Award, the America‑Israel Cultural Foundation’s Aviv Competitions Composition Prize, the Israel Composers’ League Klon Prize, and First Prize in the Israel Conservatory of Music’s National Composition Competition. Perlman has been an artist fellow at MacDowell, I‑Park Foundation and Herrenhaus Edenkoben, and has held fellowships at the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and the Meitar Ensemble’s Tedarim Project.
Music education is a central part of Udi Perlman’s practice. He has taught across higher education, pre-college, and outreach programs in Germany, the U.S., and Israel, and also maintains a private studio where he works individually with composition students at various levels. He serves on the music theory faculty at the Jerusalem Music Center and directs the Jerusalem Street Orchestra Mentorship Program, training early-career composers in orchestration and arranging. At the Berlin School of Popular Arts (SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences), he teaches his self-designed course, Arranging Popular Music for Strings. Previously, he was a Teaching Fellow at Yale University, where he taught composition, analysis, musicianship, and electronic music, and worked with high school students through Yale’s Music in Schools Initiative.
Perlman is currently pursuing a DMA in composition at the Yale School of Music, where his doctoral thesis won the Friedmann Thesis Prize. He holds degrees from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (B.Mus. & M.Mus.), the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin (Artist Diploma), and undertook additional studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. His teachers include Christopher Theofanidis, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Yinam Leef, and Menachem Wiesenberg.
Bio last updated: July 2025