Yotam Ishay Septet

Yotam Ishay Septet

As winner of the 2025 Jazz WaHi Composition Competition, Yotam Ishay will premiere his commissioned work, "Let's Play With Our Eyes Closed" at the 8th Annual Washington Heights Jazz Festival.

Yotam is a Grammy-nominated pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator known for blending jazz, classical, and global influences into a distinctive musical voice. Born in Israel, now living in New York, Yotam's music is deeply rooted in impressionistic harmony, Mediterranean grooves, and improvisation.

Yotam grew up in Afula, a small town in Israel, where his first musical memory was hearing a Naomi Shemer song in class at age five. The sound of the trumpets playing mediant thirds sparked a mystical, emotional reaction—an experience that ignited his lifelong exploration of harmony and musical storytelling.

Before his 10th birthday, he began formal classical piano lessons and quickly developed a passion for composition, inspired by the music of Claude Debussy. His first mentor, Gideon Hazor, guided him at the pastoral Jezreel Valley Center for the Arts for six years. With Hazor’s advice, Yotam expanded his studies to jazz piano, which profoundly shaped his musical language.

After finishing his service duty, Yotam continued his education at the Rimon School of Music in Israel and Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, where he was a full-tuition scholar. At Berklee, he studied with professors Alla Cohen, Alain Mallet, and Stephany Tiernan.?

Since then, Yotam has released three albums - "Opus 1", "SEED", and 'SPROUT' and participated as a finalist in three editions of the International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition, won the "Beyond Music" competition, where he collaborated with multi-Grammy winners Michael League & Bill Laurance, and received a Grammy nomination on his work for the Berklee Indian Ensemble album - "Shuruaat".

“This composition is inspired by my time in a trio I formed back home with two close friends. We met at music school and spent over a year playing weekly sessions, followed by shared meals and deep conversations. In the months leading up to my move to the U.S. in 2015, we played an intensive three month gig performing in different train stations, refining our musical connection to the point where we could finish each other’s sentences. I remember that when playing with them I would close my eyes as we started playing a song, and open them in the end of it.

Even though we haven’t played together in the past eight years, and we live in 3 separate continents, our friendship remains strong. We still talk, share life thoughts, and reflect on philosophy and personal growth. This suite will pay tribute to our bond, capturing the spirit of those formative years through music—our laughter, the challenges we faced, and the deep connection that continues to inspire me today.

The challenge for writing this piece will be to have inspiration from friendship & love, and not from a place conflict & unease, which has always been easier for me to write from.”

Yotam Ishay, piano
OG, bass
Hillai Govreen, clarinet
Maxim Cholley, drums
Meg Okura, violin
Julie Kim, cello
Tamir Lifshitz, guitar

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