Biography

Background

[Nissim on a tram] Nissim Schaul is a composer of music for classical instruments, and the occasional radio or film project. He has two divergent impulses as a composer – one is towards the austere beauty of sound itself, but he’s too interested in the expressive power of music to abandon the hallmarks of big Romanticism altogether. These days, he's reconciling these two impulses by making collisions – peaceful or violent, loud or quiet, strident or subdued, complementary or clashing – of color in his search for the intersection between still space and grand gestures.

Currently living in Paris, Nissim grew up in Raleigh, NC and has spent most of his adult life in New York City. His work has been performed throughout the Tristate region, including at Symphony Space’s Thalia Theatre, Tenri Cultural Institute, Le Poisson Rouge, and in Stony Brook, NY. Nissim’s next project, an orchestration and recomposition of the Algerian song Yelha Wourar for chamber orchestra and traditional percussionists, will be performed at the Basilica of Saint-Denis, near Paris, on November 13, 2009. Recently, Nuevos Misterios, his piece for amplified harpsichord and Baroque violin, was premiered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on the Schubert Club Courtroom Series, and later performed at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Nissim’s Three Studies (shadow in the hot sun) for Soprano, Accordion, and String Trio, was premiered in July as part of the 2009 composition workshop at the Académie Musicale de Villecroze, headed by Bernard Cavanna. Nissim’s work has been heard from Reno, Nevada to Istria, in Croatia, as well as on the radio on Studio 360, and Network Europe. He wrote the soundtrack for American Purgatory, a radio documentary on political asylum in the age of terrorism which was heard on several public radio stations across the United States, from San Francisco to Chicago to Maine. Nissim is currently working on a piece for his hometown youth orchestra, Raleigh's Triangle Youth Philharmonic.

[Nissim on a train] Nissim received his BA from Columbia University (with honors in music) and his Master's in Composition from SUNY-Stony Brook. His past teachers include Allain Gaussin, J. Mark Stambaugh, Dan Weymouth, Sheila Silver, Jonathan Kramer, Sebastian Currier, and he has participated in workshops/masterclasses with Marco Stroppa and Bernard Cavanna. He is currently studying computer music at the Conservatory of La Courneuve / Aubervilliers with Jonathan Pontier and Jean-Yves Bernhard. He is also picking up the vielle à roue (French hurdy-gurdy), just for fun.

Nissim won ASPCAPlus awards in 2008-09 and 2009-2010, and his music has been supported by the American Music Center's Composer Assistance Program, SUNY-Stony Brook, and the New York State Music Fund. He has received academic scholarships from Columbia University, SUNY-Stony Brook, and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau and the Académie Musicale de Villecroze, which he attended for the 2003 and 2009 sessions, respectively. Nissim is affiliated with ASCAP and a member of the American Composers Forum and the American Music Center.