Moran Choir from Beit Itzhak Emek Hefer, Israel

Vita

Naomi Faran founded the Moran Choir in 1986, since when it has made enormous musical and educational achievements. It numbers some 50 young singers aged between 12 and 18.

Many leading composers have written original choral works and operas for the choir, among them Haim Permont (“The Pied Piper of Hamlin”); Gil Shohat (“The Happy Prince”, based on Oscar Wilde’s story); Ella Milch-Sheriff (“And the Rat Laughed”); Menachem Weisenberg (a children’s song cycle); Moshe Zorman (“I Have No Other Country”, a cycle of Israeli folk songs); Eyal Batt (“Sorobindi”); Shlomo Gronich (“The Tower of Babel”, cantata); and more.

The choir features regularly on the most prominent stages in Israel, including the Israeli Opera, the Cameri Theater, Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival, Tel Aviv Museum and others. It sings regularly with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, as well as performing at national ceremonies and special events.

The Moran Choir is often invited to represent Israel at festivals, competitions and workshops around the world and to this end has visited Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, the USA, Canada, Spain, Slovenia, Scandinavia and other countries.

The choir combines excellence in singing with a range of community activities undertaken jointly with special needs children and adolescents and pediatric cancer patients at Schneider Children’s Hospital.  

Conductor

Naomi Faran founded the Moran Choir and has remained its conductor and music director ever since. She graduated from Levinsky College of Education and the Conductors course at Tel Aviv University’s Rubin Academy. She then pursued advanced study of choir conducting at Denmark’s Copenhagen Conservatory and the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden.

Naomi Faran is regularly invited to give master classes in conducting and workshops at symposia around the world, as well as being in demand as a judge in international competitions, a position she has fulfilled in Slovenia, Denmark, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Italia, Spain, Argentina and more recently at the Europa Cantat Festival in the Netherlands.

In 1996 Naomi Faran won the Outstanding Conductor Award in an international choir competition. From 1992 to 2002 she was appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture to head a special project to promote and develop children’s and youth choirs in Israel. As part of this she held study workshops for teachers and conductors, taught choirs around the country and strengthened ties between composers and children’s and youth choirs. The year 2002 saw the foundation of the Israeli Center for Vocal Music, the home base of the Moran Choir, at Naomi Faran’s initiative. The Center holds workshops for young singers, conductors, teachers and choirs. A special focus aims to bring the Center’s activities closer to underprivileged communities by conducting joint projects with children suffering from cancer, children at risk and special needs children and adolescents.

It is Naomi Faran’s belief that singing is the most natural and profound human expression of all, bridging gaps between individuals, cultures and nations: “We should make sure that the culture of singing is implanted deep within all of us, to make us better, more sensitive people who can contribute more to our surroundings.”
She adds that for her: “Conducting means creating a balance between awareness and a flow in real time. Singing is simply being yourself.”