Bergel, Bernd

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BERGEL, BERND

BERGEL, BERND (1909–1966), Israel composer. Bergel was born in Hohensalza, Germany, the nephew of Sammy *Gronemann, one of the principal leaders of the Zionist movement in pre-World War ii Germany. He studied at the Berlin Music Academy where he was a student of Arnold *Schoenberg. He settled in Tel Aviv in 1938. Bergel was invited by the Music of the Twentieth Century Festival 1954 in Rome to compose his Prayer of a Man in the Year 2100 for solo voice and 11 instruments. His works include Divertimento for small orchestra, Variations for orchestra (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Prize), and the opera Jacob's Dream (1961) based on text by Richard Beer-Hoffmann.

[Ury Eppstein (2nd ed.)]