Mark Kopytman (Hebrew: מרק קופיטמן; December 6, 1929 – December 16, 2011) was a composer, musicologist and pedagogue. He was a professor and a rector of the Rubin Academy (Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance), and a Laureate of the Serge Koussevitzky Prize for his composition Voices of Memory (1986). Kopytman was awarded the title "People's Artist of Moldova" in 1992 by the Moldovan President for the creation of the first Moldovan national opera, Casa mare ("The Great House").
Early life and education
Kopytman was born in Kamianets-Podilskyi in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) in 1929. He received his initial training in piano and music theory at Chernivtsi Music College and later went on to study medicine at the Chernivtsi Medical Institute. After graduating from medical college, Kopytman studied composition with Roman Simovych at the Lysenko Academy of Music in Lviv and with S. Bogatirev at Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow. After gaining his second PhD in theory and composition, Kopytman taught at the conservatories of Moscow, Almaty and Chişinău. Several of his compositions won prizes and distinctions in competitions and festivals.
Emigration
In 1972 Kopytman emigrated to Israel, where he became a Professor of Composition at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. Kopytman eventually served as Chairman of the Theory and Composition Department, and later as Dean and the Deputy Head of the Academy (1974-1994).
In 1979, Kopytman was invited to teach as a permanent guest professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He led seminars and master classes in composition, especially in heterophony, at universities and music schools throughout Europe and the United States.
Compositions
Kopytman's individual style is inspired by Jewish folklore and combined with economical use of recent innovations and characterized by a strong accent on melodic lines in the web of heterophonic splitting of textures.
His orchestral and chamber compositions have been performed at many festivals across the world.
Awards
Kopytman is recipient of several prizes; among them the prestigious Koussevitzky International Record Critics award for his orchestral work Memory (1986), the Israel ACUM Prize for lifetime achievement (1992), and the Israel Prime Minister Prize (2002).
