About

First composer to be chosen for the Académie des Beaux-Arts’ residency at the Villa Dufraine, Yoav Sadeh (*1997) currently resides in Chars, France. He will soon finish his master’s degree in composition at the Haute École de Musique de Genève studying with Michael Jarrell and Luis Naón. Previous teachers include Keith Fitch in the United States and Oded Zehavi in Israel. He owns a bachelor’s degree in composition and music theory with honours from the Cleveland institute of Music where he won the Donald Erb prize in composition. He has participated in masterclasses with Georges Aperghis, Péter Eötvös, and Unsuk Chin among others, and in seminars with Héctor Parra, Fabien Lévy, Rebecca Saunders, Lisa Streich, Andrew Norman, Joan Tower, Augusta Read Thomas, and Sean Shepherd. He is also in close contact with musicologist Susan McClary and has been in contact with opera director Peter Sellars.

Yoav is fascinated by translating techniques from the other arts into the musical realm, such as cinematography and editing in film, trying to create new textures and forms in the process. Film specifically is a constant source of inspiration for Yoav, especially attracted to the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Robert Bresson. Several of his works explicitly refer to film and literature, such as the works of Leos Carax and writings of Bruno Schulz.

Yoav’s music has been performed by conductors Clement Power, Jean-Bernard Matter, and Vinay Parameswaran (former associate conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra); performers David Moliner, Ensemble Contrechamps, and the Carmel quartet, among others; and in venues such as the Berliner Philharmoniker’s kammermusiksaal. He is currently working on a piece for soprano and orchestra.

In September 2025, Yoav will start his PhD studies in King’s College London, studying with Sir George Benjamin.