Avner Finberg

Avner Finberg is an Israeli-American composer and violinist. He studied composition with Ari Ben-Shabtai at The Jerusalem Academy of Music, with Robert Cuckson at The Mannes College, and with Susan Botti at Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a doctorate dfasin composition in 2015. 

Finberg’s music has been described by Steven Stucky as “reined, mature work of impeccable technique, original voice, and considerable ambition.” His musical inspirations stem from his Israeli roots and his current life in the United States, combining without discrimination multiple world music traditions with contemporary and classical music techniques and modern technology. 

Finberg’s compositions have been performed by Meitar Ensemble, ensemble mise-en, The Boston New Music Initiative, Ensemble Platypus Wien, The Ithaca New Music Collective, and Cisum Percussion, among others. He was a fellow at Composers and the Voice in 2013-14, and a resident at Yaddo in 2016. Scenes from his opera A Taste of Damnation were performed at the Fort Worth Opera Festival and scenes from his second opera, The Exagoge, were recently premiered at The National Opera Center in New York City.

Finberg studied violin in Israel with Hagai Shaham and Roi Shiloach. He has performed with the Israel Philharmonic, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Binghamton Philharmonic. He has premiered new works at ORF Radio Tirol in Austria, Spectrum NYC, Cornell University, and Manhattan School of Music. He began composing and performing his own music for violin and electronics at the Ithaca New Music Collective in 2017. He uses Max MSP and Ableton Live to enhance the violin with accompanying tracks and effects that are almost exclusively based on live and pre-recorded violin.