Obituary: Yehuda Oppenheimer (1925 - 2012)

On the February 18, 2012, Yehuda Oppenheimer passed away early in the morning at the I.C.C.U Shaare Zedek Medical Center, a hospital in Jerusalem. He had severe heart failure and fatal complications. His funeral, in keeping with Jewish tradition, took place at Tivon cemetery on Tuesday.

Yeshiva Oppenheimer (born April 27, 1925) was brought up in Germany, but in 1937 his family moved to the Netherlands hoping to avoid anti-semitic persecution. When the Germans invaded in 1940, the Oppenheimer's managed to survive the war years by hiding in the attic of a friendly Christian family in Amsterdam – drawing parallels with the story of Anne Frank, though with a much happier outcome. At the age of 6, Yehuda took up the accordion, and attained a high standard despite never having any lessons.

After the war, Yehuda went to Israel, where he began a remarkable career in music. He studied the violin at the Conservatory in Jerusalem, and then found out that he could earn a living playing the accordion at convalescence homes and hotels. In the 1948 War of Independence, 23 year old Yehuda was in the army entertaining his fellow troops.

After leaving the army he established himself as a teacher of the accordion and has, over the years, taught many students from all over Israel, some of whom have won prizes internationally.

In the late 1950s Yehuda founded an accordion orchestra with which he worked for thirty years. His first solo accordion CD was recorded in 1998, 'The Magic Accordion of Yehuda Oppenheimer', which is half in the light-music style and half master arrangements of classical music, and an original piece for orchestra and accordion, 'Rhapsody Israelienne', written for him by one of the foremost Israeli composers, March Lavry, and performed this with the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg.

His second CD, 'Two Friends', contains the compositions of Jozef Pritsch, who was an accordion teacher, with other pieces composed by Yehuda. Lately, he produced, as a present for his 80th birthday (in April, 2005) another CD with his latest works, all typical accordion pieces, 'Accordion Mon Amour'. Two of these CDs are available at Yehuda Oppenheimer.

In Israel, Yehuda Oppenheimer is often referred to as the 'Prophet of the Accordion'. His book, a unique and monumental hardback, 'The Man, the Accordion, and the Legend' (Catalog No: oybook), was published late in 2011, containing 30 compositions and 30 classical transcriptions plus a biography.

Yehuda Oppenheimer devoted a life-time to the accordion and its development in Israel and it was so fitting that he should be awarded a Lifetime Achievement award only a few days before he died.

Available online at Yehuda Oppenheimer are two CD's, sound samples, 23 original compositions, 63 arrangements of folk music and famous classics and 5 duets.

Messages of condolence can be sent to: adinaya@netvision.net.il

Biography online at the time of passing: (1925-2012)

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