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Niko Levy
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Niko Levy is a musician, composer and arranger. Early life Niko, the oldest of two sons, was born and raised in the city of Givatayim in central Israel. He began his musical career at the age of six, playing the recorder. At the age of seven he began playing the piano, studying under Ella Brodetzki and Dina Turgeman. At age 12 he switched to the clarinet, studying under Rafi Bracha. He attended Thelma Yellin high school majoring in music. During this period he played a lot of chamber music, performing as a soloist with Hanoar Hmusicali (the Israeli chapter on the international NGO Jeunesses Musicales International which promotes music performance by young musicians). His performances there included a clarinet concerto by Weber; he also orchestrated a piano composition by an Israeli composer for Hanoar Hmusicali's Orchestra and appeared with the Givatayim Youth Orchestra, conducted by Omri Hadari, where he was marked as a music prodigy. As a clarinet player, Niko Levy twice won an honorable mention and was awarded a scholarship by the America Israel Cultural Foundation (also known as the Sharet Fund). During his mandatory army service Niko served as a member of the IDF Orchestra as a clarinet player (next to Guri Agmon) which was conducted by Isaac (Ziko) Grassiani and taught at the Givatayim conservatory. After his discharge from the army Niko travelled to Switzerland. Career In 1980, Niko became the musical director of the band Shalom Israel 1980. He orchestrated and arranged the band's songs and conducted the orchestra accompanying the band when the latter toured Europe. In addition, he wrote during that time the musical arrangements for the play Karpad (Toad) by Yaakov Shabtai. Between 1981 and 1984 Niko studied composition at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University under Prof. Abel Ehrlich (an Israel Prize laureate). Niko composed works for string trio, string quartet and duets for male and female singers. He was also the manager of the Music Center of Lower Galilee Misgav Bloc's Youth Orchestra. In 1986 Niko began a long and fruitful professional cooperation with Helen Doron, a woman who had developed an exclusive and successful method for teaching English to children, a method that was named after her ("Helen Doron English"). Niko composed and produced for Helen Doron English hundreds of songs and the prolific cooperation between the two continues to this day. Niko Levy broke into public awareness in Israel in 1994, when he came out with the show The Sound of Nature, which was performed in Hararit. The music he composes was influenced by nature's enchanting landscapes, sounds and fragrances; this was ambient music spiced with varied exotic sounds and rhythms: Irish, African, Shanti, Turkish, Indian and more. Albums *Annanda: *Cosmic Romanza: *Continuum Musical ensembles In 2010 Niko Levy founded the Niko Philharmonic orchestra together with some of his friends (Mike Oudy, trumpet, Dudu Koren, flute, Ada Sever, clarinet with Niko playing keyboards, serving as orchestral background). Niko Levy arranged famous works from different periods, ranging from the Baroque through the Romantic Period and up to the present, including works by Bach, Handel, Gluck, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Verdi and Johann Strauss. 
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