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Experimental musician Carmel Raz has been attracting international recognition for the depth and breadth of her musical activities.

As a COMPOSER, she has received grants and commissions from Meet the Composer, the Mellon Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, ASCAP, the Rabinovitch Foundation, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the Israel Chamber Music Institute and the Tel-Aviv Academy of Music, as well as top awards in the Musica Donum Dei Composition Competition and in the Karen Sokolof Javitch Composition Competition. Many ensembles, including the Arditti, Molinari, Carmel and Pacifica Quartets, Orkest de Ereprijs, Musica Nova Israel and the Modern Contemporary Players of Texas, have performed her music in venues throughout Europe, Israel and North America. Her works have been programmed at festivals such as the Toronto Summer Festival, the SoundField Festival, the Young Composers Meeting in Holland, the American Composers Alliance Festival, June in Buffalo, and the Tel-Aviv Jazz-o-Nova Festival as well as in venues throughout Europe, Israel and North America.

As a VIOLINIST, Carmel has performed and toured with the Israel Contemporary String Quartet, the Ensemble Modern Academy, the Tel-Aviv Soloists Ensemble, Ensemble Noamnesia and the Millennium Chamber Players at festivals including March Music Days (Bulgaria), Klangspuren (Austria), Transart (Italy), and Jusqu’aux Oreilles (Canada). She has collaborated with composers as diverse as Evan Ziporyn, Osvaldo Golijov and Alvin Curran on performances of their works, and has been featured as a chamber musician at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Kennedy Center. Carmel was concertmaster of Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (2001—2002) and of the Young Israel Philharmonic (1998—1999), and was a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra (2004—2005) and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (2003—2004), appearing across Europe and Asia under the batons of Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim and Claudio Abbado. 



In addition to her activities as a classical performer, Carmel is very active as an IMPROVISER, performing on violin, viola and mandolin in a variety of music genres ranging from Jazz to World Music and Electronica. Described as "Impressive" by Cadence Magazine and "Very Strong" by Improviser Magazine, she has collaborated with artists including David Krakauer, Yoyo Ma's Silk Road Project, Jason Lindner, Greg Ward, Avishai Cohen and Omer Avital and performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Green Mill, the Velvet Lounge and the Jazz Gallery.

Born in 1982, Carmel grew up in the United States and Israel. She holds degrees from the Hochschule fuer Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin, Germany, and from the University of Chicago. Starting in September 2009, she will start the PhD program in music theory at Yale University.