INFORMATION
| Born In : | Nachlaot, Il |
| Web Site : | www.yonatanrazel.com/index.php/en/ |
Yonatan Razel was born to parents who were just finishing their psychology studies. Not long after his brother Aaron was born the family made Aliya to Israel, to the neighborhood of Nachlaot in Jerusalem.
At the time, Nachlaot was a traditional neighborhood. The family attended the Beit Yitzhak Persian synagogue and began the spiritual process of turning towards religious Judaism. The synagogues music, along with the Beatles songs (from his Mother’s records), and early classical music education (from his father and grandfather) formed Yonatan’s musical foundation. He began his musical studies at a young age (along with his brothers and sister). Lessons, given mainly by his father, included listening, hearing and writing music.
Yonatan began to study at the high school near the music academy. He studied piano with Benjamin Oren and Penina Zaltzman, Cello with his grandfather Professor Mark Ruzler and composition with Andrey Haidu and Lev Bogoslofski. He won awards for composing and began studying conducting with Mendi Rodan at the music academy.
After high school he enlisted in the Israeli Army as part of the “Outstanding Musician” program and began playing as a keyboardist & musical arranger for the IDF military band. After the army Yonatan graduated from the music academy with a bachelor’s degree in conducting. He started working as the musical director for the Ra’anana Symphonette. In that same period, he was conducting and composing classical works for the Ra’anana Symphonette and the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. Additionally he collaborated with various Israeli musicians such as Arkadi Duchin, Yoni Rechter, Shlomo Gronich ,Shlomo Artzi and others.
During this period, Yonatan was accepted into the prestigious Cambridge University Musical composition program, but decided instead to deepen his inner spiritual and professional journey and went to study at a Yeshiva. In addition to his Yeshiva studies, he worked on a farm and at a special education institute, while simultaneously learning various subjects at the university. After a several years he decided to return to music and he began performing in Jewish communities around the world while also heading the music department in a school near the Dead Sea, all the while collecting material for his new album.
Yonatan performs as a conductor around the world. He conducted the Russian philharmonic in a special concert alongside singer David D’or and few years ago he conducted at the Lincoln center in NY City with Avraham Frid and Dudu Fisher.
In 2007, he released his debut album “All in All”, produced by Eviatar Banai. The album was a great success and achieved a gold album. Following the success of the album there were performances in Israel and around the world.
In 2008, Yonatan Razel released a remake of the song “Vehi she’amda”, he composed, arranged and performed a duet with Hasidic singer Yaakov Shwekey, the collaboration was a success and it became an anthem in the Haredi world.
In 2011, he won an award from ACUM for composition and musical arrangement. During Hanukkah 2012, Yonatan’s second album, “Bein HaZlilim” was released and became a gold record and a huge worldwide success in only a few short months. In 2013, Yonatan’s song “Katonti” received the prestigious Song of the Year award by ACUM.
Razel is very busy performing solo and band performances all over the world, and continues to devote himself to musical arrangement and conducting..
Yonatan is married with five children, and divides his day between learning Torah and writing and creating music.
