Born Aug. 1978 in Washington D.C.
Immigrated to Haifa, Israel with his parents and older brother at the age of 3.
Ophir started his musical training with Piano under Noga Dagan in Haifa where he matriculated cum-laude in Piano and music theory from the WIZO-Canada high school for the arts.
He attended the composition class of the noted Israeli composer Arie Shapira before leaving Israel in favor of a Bachelors degree at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague where he studied under Gilius van Bergijk, Clarence Barlow, Martijn Padding and attended the famous Sonology course.
In 2006 Ophir received a full scholarship, supported by the Guildhall School Trust, to attend The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He completed with merit the Mmus composition course under Malcolm Singer.
Ophir has been awarded the Stapley Trust Study Grant for the years 2007/8 and is the recipient of the 2007/8 Tracy Chadwell Prize for his Bat-Sheva Shapira songs for Voice and Piano.
Ophir has published 4 pieces on commercial CD. Seed was published on an Open Source CD in the UK. Free, Zman She Over Lo Shav, and Still Life with Riots were published by the Oryan publishing house in Israel. He has also written various articles published through the same house for its magazine “Tav+â€.
On 2008 Ophir was added to the Sound And Music composer shortlist.
The ISCM British Section has selected Ophir’s Ambiance for Saxophone Quartet and Live Electronics for performance at the ISCM World Music Days 2010 in Australia.
Ophir can be heard monthly on his program An Hour, featured on the Internet based radio stations Halas and WFMU. For more details: www.halas.am or http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ophir_Ilzetzki/
Starting Sep. 2009 Ophir is a PhD candidate at the University of Southampton under the noted British composer, Michael Finnissy.
