© Neda Navaee, 2021

Eres Holz, born in 1977 in Rechovot (near Tel Aviv), is an internationally sought-after composer, known for the intense language of sound and the emotional depth of his works. His compositions address existential questions of human existence, blending algorithmic processes with the expansion of sonoric realms through live electronics.

Eres Holz was born in 1977 near Tel Aviv, in Rechovot. From 1998 to 2002, he completed a Bachelor's degree in Composition under Ruben Seroussi at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, graduating magna cum laude. During his studies, he received a scholarship from Tel Aviv University. From 2004 to 2012, he pursued a diploma and Master's degree in Composition with Hanspeter Kyburz, and in Computer Music with Wolfgang Heiniger, at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. The focus of his Master's thesis was theoretical and artistic research into algorithmic process models in composition.

Eres Holz is a freelance composer. He is also an educator and regularly engages in music pedagogy. In 2022, he was appointed as a lecturer at the Bundeswettbewerb Jugend komponiert. Since 2008, he has been working as a lecturer in Algorithmic Composition, and since the summer semester of 2019, he has also been the artistic project leader (working with the music and multimedia software Max/MSP) at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. In 2008, he was a lecturer in Algorithmic Composition at the University of the Arts Berlin. In the same year, he assisted with the ECMCT Project (European Course for Musical Composition and Technologies), coordinated by IRCAM, at the Technical University of Berlin. From 2011 to 2012, he was the artistic director of the team at the Kurt-Schwitters-Schule as part of the music education project Querklang, a collaboration between the University of the Arts Berlin and the MaerzMusik Festival for Contemporary Music. In the Berlin Philharmonic's Education Program, he was a répétiteur at Theater Hans Wurst Nachfahren in 2011, and he worked there as a sound director until 2018.

Eres Holz regularly receives scholarships, commissions, and awards. His double album Touching Universes was nominated in three categories for the OPUS Klassik 2023: "Composer of the Year", "Chamber Music Recording", and "New Classical". His third album DEATH was released by Neos in 2024, following Klangrede (2016, Bastille Musique) and Denkklänge (2013, Wilhelm Fink Verlag). His MACH compositions received funding from Musikfonds e.V. and GEMA in 2020 and 2021. In 2017, he was Composer in Residence at Deutschlandfunk and the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne. He received composition scholarships from the Berlin Senate in 2013, 2014, and 2015. In 2014, his composition Vier Schatten for brass quintet won the Carl von Ossietzky – Composition Prize. In 2012, he received a residency grant from the Berlin Senate at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In 2012, he was nominated for the Deutsche Musikautorenpreis in the category of Emerging Talent. In 2005, 2008, and 2010, he won prizes in Composition at the Hanns-Eisler-Preis for composition and interpretation of contemporary music.

His works are performed at international platforms and festivals for new music by renowned musicians, including at the Traiettorie Festival, Parma, Italy | Gare du Nord, Basel, Switzerland | Konzerthaus Vienna, Austria | Impuls Festival, Graz, Austria | Tonedmelisma, Istanbul, Turkey | Ultraschall, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Berlin | Ars Nova, Südwestrundfunk (SWR) | Südseite nachts – Musik der Jahrhunderte, Stuttgart | TonLagen, Hellerau | Forum neuer Musik, Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Cologne | Klangwerkstatt Berlin | ZKM, Karlsruhe | Unerhörte Musik, Berlin | Impuls Festival, Saxony-Anhalt | Staatsoper at the Schiller Theater, Berlin | Konzerthaus Berlin | ZeitGenuss, Karlsruhe | Podium Worpswede e.V. | PODIUM Esslingen | Theater und Musik in Ahrensburg e.V. | Totally-Trumpet, Academy of the Arts Berlin. Extensive portrait programs have been broadcast on ARD, Deutschlandradio (DLR), Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Südwestrundfunk (SWR), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Radio Bremen, Hessischer Rundfunk (HR), Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), as well as the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) and the Israeli Kol Ha'Musica.

Since 2014, Holz has been a member of the Akademie Deutscher Musikautoren. From 2015 to 2018, he was a juror for the Initiative Neue Musik Berlin e.V. In 2020, he was appointed by the Senate of Berlin as a juror for the promotion of work grants in serious music.

Eres Holz lives and works in Berlin.

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