Rachel Beja

Rachel Beja, born in 1984, studied composition at the "G. Verdi" Conservatory in Milan under the guidance of Maestro Gabriele Manca, earning a first-level academic diploma in composition with a grade of 110/110, and a second-level academic diploma in composition with a grade of 110/110 with honors. She also attended the composition course at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She obtained a bachelor's degree in Music Education from Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv. In 2023, she was selected by Riot Ensemble in their call for scores and was commissioned to write a new piece for soprano, oboe, harpsichord, percussion, and double bass. In 2022, she was a composer-in-residence in Potries, Spain, with the Riot Ensemble of London. In 2021, she was selected by the ULYSSES Network, receiving co- commissions from IRCAM (France) and Divertimento Ensemble (Italy). During the 2018-19 academic year, she attended IDEA, a composition course organized by Divertimento Ensemble with the support of MIBACT and SIAE, participating in masterclasses with renowned composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Fabien Lévy, Giorgio Netti, Hanspeter Kyburz, Francesco Filidei, and Daniele Ghisi. Additionally, as part of the same course, she participated in composition workshops with Maestros Stefano Gervasoni, Mauro Lanza, and Sandro Gorli. She has also taken courses and masterclasses led by Salvatore Sciarrino, Franck Bedrossian, Yann Robin, Marco Momi, and Pierluigi Billone, among others. Her works have been performed in Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East by groups such as the UniMi Orchestra, Divertimento Ensemble, Internationale Ensemble Moderne Academie, Riot Ensemble of London, Schallfeld Ensemble of Graz, Ensemble Multilatérale of France, Tana Quartet, Quartet 121, Zöllner/Roche duo of Sweden, The Israel Contemporary Players, Mdi Ensemble, and Mise-en Ensemble of New York. She has participated in numerous festivals, including ManiFeste in Paris, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Impuls Festival Graz (Austria), Potries Music Fest (Spain), Mise-En Music Festival (NYC), and Milano Musica Festival. She has received commissions from significant institutions, including IRCAM-Center Pompidou with the support of the ULYSSES Network, the European Union through the Creative Europe program, Milano Musica Festival, Divertimento Ensemble, the Symphony Orchestra of the Milan Conservatory (OSCoM), the UniMi Orchestra, Ensemble Schallfeld, Ensemble Mise- En, Quartet 121, and the Zöllner/Roche Duo. She collaborates with numerous esteemed performers, including Pierpaolo Dinapoli, Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, Heather Roche, Eva Zöllner, Jonathan Chazan, Simone Moschitz, and Irina Ghivier. She has worked with various conductors, such as Sandro Gorli, Ilan Volkov, Mauro Bonifacio, Marco Bossi, Andreas Gies, and Alessandro Bombonati. Rachel has distinguished herself in various national and international competitions, winning first prize at the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory Prize in Milan (2018) and the International "Egidio Carella"-Val Tidone competition (2021). She won second prize at the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory Prize in Milan (2017) and the "Il volo di Pegaso" literary, artistic, and musical competition, earning a special mention for technical value and the quality of her musical writing.

In June 2022, she will be the artist-in-residence with the Riot Ensemble of London in Potries (Valencia). She was selected to participate in the Ars Nova Society project, organized by Hertzbreakerz, where she won the "The Mechanics of Breath" call with financial support from Musikverket and in collaboration with Lund Contemporary and Moderne Mandag of Malmö. She won the EP call from Quartet 121 of NYC, with the support of the Alice M. Ditson Fund and the Ensemble Forward Grant from Chamber Music America. She has been selected twice to participate in the "Il Teatro Della Voce" project promoted by the G. Verdi Conservatory of Milan in collaboration with Milano Musica Festival, initiating research on vocality and the relationship between singer/actor, guided by tutors Laura Catrani, Dario Buccino, and Gabriele Manca. She participated in WARM 2020, the Artistic Research Workshop organized by the L. Cherubini Conservatory of Florence, in collaboration with the G. Verdi Conservatory of Milan and the Orpheus Institute of Ghent, under the guidance of Francesco Torrigiani, Tiziano Manca, and Gabriele Manca, presenting the topic: "Matter and Mobile Reality: Composing Continuity." As an educator, she has taught Harmony Theory and Analysis at the Trieste Conservatory