Michael Seltenreich (born 1988 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli composer of contemporary classical music who resides in New York City. He is the sole Israeli composer to win the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award and a recipient of the Israel Prime Minister Award in Composition. His work Sparks & Flares was the submission of the American chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music and was chosen for performance at the World Music Days / Beijing Modern Music Festival 2018.
Biography
Seltenreich was born in Tel Aviv. He graduated from Thelma Yellin High School for The Arts in 2006. By 2011 he received a bachelor's degree in music composition from Buchmann-Mehta School of Music of Tel Aviv University, where he primarily studied with composer Gil Shohat. In 2014 he relocated to New York to pursue a master's degree from The Juilliard School. During his time at Juilliard, he studied primarily with German composer and conductor Matthias Pintscher. Currently he is a MacCracken Doctoral Fellow at New York University.
Seltenreich is internationally active as a composer, and in 2016 he was commissioned by Messiaen au pays de la Meije. Subsequently, he was commissioned by Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and participated in IRCAM's Manifeste in 2018. Seltenreich held residencies in Atlantic Center for the Arts where he acted as an Associate Composer in Residence with Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas, and at the Yaddo artist community.
Critical reception
During the ISCM Award Ceremony in Beijing (2018), the jury described their motivations for selecting Seltenreich as the award winner and referred to his music as "engaging, effervescent, energetic, and assured" and that it "demonstrates detailed control of the materials and a sophistication that makes us eager to hear more".
Japanese composer, Toshi Ichiyanagi explained that Seltenreich's "sophisticated orchestration technique" and his music's "refinement in the way the nuances are brought out" along with its "richness of expression" were his motivations for selecting Seltenreich as a finalist for the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award. Finally, when he chose Seltenreich's piece, "ARCHETYPE", as the receipt of the 1st prize, Ichyanagi explained that it "was a very rare piece in that it was very precisely and densely written" presenting a "very modern motif that resulted in creating a very deep, thick musical texture"
Selected works
Orchestral
Comments regarding the aforementioned poem (2014) for string orchestra and narrator ARCHETYPE (2015) for symphony orchestra Élégie (2016) for solo piano, and string orchestra Psalm Symphony (2017) for narrator, choir, orchestra, and children's choir
Ensemble
Sparks & Flares (2010) for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello
ICD-10 Chapter V: Mental and behavioral disorders (2018) for flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, 2 violins, viola, and cello