I don't believe in one way to teach everyone.

Aviya taught me to distill the concept in what I write, to find the melody and give it its rightful place.

She helped me see the bigger picture of the piece, while giving me room to explore, experiment, and discover the “right answer” for myself. Even when I brought funny or unconventional ideas to the table, she knew how to show me how to turn them into music and develop them into a complete work.

Aviya teaches you to be a composer, but no less than that, to be an artist true to himself and to the music he writes.

Studying with Aviya means finding and shaping your own sound alongside a mentor with an incredibly sharp ear and a keen musical perspective.

Since I started taking lessons with her, I’ve stopped worrying about having to “find my own sound.” Aviya has a unique ability to recognize musical qualities in me that I wasn’t even aware of, and help me naturally develop and grow them into my own voice.

Aviya is an exceptional composer and creator who knows how to lead her students toward new territories, all while they strengthen — knowingly or not — their traditional foundations. She carries out her role as a teacher with the same authenticity and integrity with which she creates; for her, the two are never separate.

In a personal style, full of heart yet never compromising, built on her vast experience, she makes her students — and her listeners too — feel first, and only afterward understand what she meant to say.

In her lessons, as in her music, one can travel naturally from Shostakovich and Penderecki to Björk and Muse, from strict classical orchestration to distortion and experimental music, and it all connects and flows in a coherent, serious way.

I studied with Aviya for several years that were important to my musical development, when I was a young teenager. Aviya helped me establish, strengthen, and trust my own ideas, and the connection between us has never broken.

Aviya doesn't teach anything she doesn't feel and know is important to know herself. She is an acclaimed and experienced composer and creator who lives what she teaches.

On the deepest level, Aviya's guidance helped break through and pave the way to a stronger, sharper and more creative way of listening — how to listen to the music which is in your head before you even write it on paper or record it into your DAW.

I've been studying with Aviya for four years, and they have been transformative for me. I'm a pianist, and I'd tried composing for many years without much success — I was constantly stuck in a small melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic circle. Once I started studying with Aviya, I began breaking out of it. A year ago I completed a full piano concerto in Classical style, in three movements — a piece I'm very proud of, and one I could never have written without Aviya's guidance and her meticulous teaching of orchestration and harmony. What makes her such a wonderful teacher is her ability to work on two levels at once: at the high level she offers direction, motivation, context, and references; at the detailed level she corrects mistakes in orchestration and notation, suggests alternative harmonies, and troubleshoots any problem that arises. After every lesson I came away with a much clearer sense of what to do next — and the motivation to push through the hard parts.

Aviya is a devoted teacher who was always attentive to one’s personal musical taste, and knew how to push at just the right level — the level that nurtures creation. The lessons with her were interesting and enriching.

Studying composition with Aviya always felt like the most precise fit, both personally and purely musically. On the one hand a great deal of freedom for me as a creator; on the other, a wealth of guidance and attention to detail.

Your mind opens completely. Even when you think you know, and you are sure of what you have written, you find that in a few words Aviya takes you down another path you had not thought of — one that fits the line of your own piece exactly, without imposing someone else’s agenda on you or making you sound like a copy of something else.

Thanks to her eye I won a composition competition and completed my final piece for the composition track at Rimon, which was widely praised. That way of thinking has guided me since, as a teacher myself.

I remember you as a teacher with a love for the subject and a passion for harmony; and in the composition workshop course you pushed us to get out of the box — something I always remember as characteristic of you, in musical taste as well. Beyond that, a young and cool spirit.