About Muah
Gilad Ben-Zvi (b. 1977) is an Israeli/New York Composer and Guitarist, currently based in Tampa, Florida.
He has completed his undergraduate degree in classical guitar performance at the University of South Florida under the guidance of Dr. Erol B. Ozsever, and was the first guitarist ever to receive the 'Guitar Merit Award' at USF. Ben-Zvi studied at Rimon – School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Israel and completed four years of Jazz and general performance, afterward he became involved with the local Israeli music scene and played with some of Israel’s front-line musicians.
In the summer of 2005, Gilad relocated to New York and formed the Acoustic Guitar Duo Isra-Alien with Oren Neiman. Isra-Alien perform their own music with a Mediterranean-Gypsy, Balkan, and Eastern-European flavor, and released three albums to date. They have toured across four continents, including Europe, South America, North America and Asia, and have been collaborating with some of the leaders of the Klezmer scene in New York (the Klezmatics) as well as in São Paulo, Brazil.
Isra-Alien awarded “Best Independent New Artist” by Music Connection Magazine in 2009.
Mr. Ben-Zvi was an Artist-in-Residence at the Makor artists program of the 92nd Street Y between the years 2005 and 2007.
Some of Gilad’s compositions includes Circus (for grade 1 band), The Audrey Hepburn Smile (for acoustic guitar duo), Who’s Looking? (for electric guitar, Keyboard, electric bass and drum set), The Shofar Blower (for flute and marimba) and I Had a Dream (for guitar and electronics).
In 2023 Ben-Zvi will be releasing 2(!) instrumental albums under his own name:
Once A Day - A rock, funk, world music sounds of original material for electric guitar backed with a four piece band -
Drum set, Keyboard, E. Bass, and E. Guitar, and,
Classteel - an acoustic guitar solo album of 12 famous classical guitar pieces (from Bach to the Beatles),
all newly arranged and played with a modern-contemporary approach.