Eclectic orchestra pushes the boundaries of Israeli classical music

For the past 17 years, the Revolution Orchestra has coupled its unfettered orchestral approach with a wide range of artists, from across the stylistic and genre domains

THE REVOLUTION ORCHESTRA has been shuffling the musical disciplinary cards for quite a while now. Under the steady and adventurous guiding hands of founders-artistic directors, composer Zohar Sharon and conductor Roy Oppenheim, the ensemble has taken on all sorts of hybrid musical projects that were previously considered, at best, misfits.

For the past 17 years, the troupe has coupled its unfettered orchestral approach with a wide range of artists, from across the stylistic and genre domains, kicking off with the Israeli Rock Project, featuring symphonic renditions of numbers by such leading rockers as Berry Sakharof, Assaf Amdursky, Corinne Alal and Hachaverim Shel Natasha.

Since then, Sharon and Oppenheim have steered the ensemble through a musical play that married the poetry of Yehuda Amichai with the teachings of 20th-century Austrian-born Jerusalemite philosopher Martin Buber, a project that fed off Russian Romantic composer Modest Mussorgsky’s feted “Pictures at an Exhibition”, a high-octane interface with ethnically leaning rocker Dudu Tassa and a fascinating interdisciplinary fusion with the Vertigo Dance Company.

FULL STORY Revolution orchestra takes on the roosters (Jerusalem Post)

Photo: Roy Oppenheim conducts the Revolution Orchestra (Moshe Chitayat)