Mendi Rodan

Born Mendi Rosenblum in Iași, Mendi Rodan studied violin and conducting in Bucharest, where Constantin Silvestri was among his teachers; he settled in Israel in the early 1960s and was chief conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra from 1963 to 1972. He founded the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra, and later held posts with the Israel Sinfonietta, the Belgian National Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic, where he was associate conductor. From 1962 he taught conducting at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and was its president from 1985 to 1994; the Academy's symphony orchestra took his name in 2013. He received the Israel Prize in Music in 2006 and died in 2009. Nayden Todorov was among the conducting students he taught in Jerusalem. He was born in 1929 and conducted in Romania before the move to Israel; the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra dates from 1965, and the Israel Symphony Orchestra in Rishon LeZion was among his later posts. His years as associate conductor of the Israel Philharmonic ran from 1993 to 1997.