Facebook“Just wanted to say thank you so much for all your help and professionalism with the recording of Ari’s Fanfare for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Maccabi Games in Philadelphia... The recording was a great success and over 5,000 people heard it and were just thrilled by it.”
Sharon Sussman
Mother of composer Ari Sussman
Spotlight - Fanfare: A New Beginning
Philadelphian composer Ari Sussman was chosen to write the opening fanfare for the 2011 JCC Maccabi Games, which were held in Philadelphia. Ravel Virtual Studios created the performance and recording of Ari’s Fanfare: A New Beginning, which was announced by well-known sports commentator Michael Barkann and played during the opening ceremonies to an audience of over 5,000 on August 14, 2011.
Fanfare: A New Beginning was composed for brass/wind band and percussion. Ari’s main influence was John Williams’ Olympic Fanfare. Ari says that, “the fanfare I composed has similar techniques to those of John Williams, including the very essential trumpet theme that is continuously heard throughout the piece.”
Ari hopes you enjoy his fanfare and he hopes that it brought you as much adrenaline and goosebumps as it did at the Maccabi Games!
About Ari Sussman
Ari Sussman is a senior at the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, right outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is very musically active at school, being the musical director and arranger of the school’s acapella group, head accompanist and co-conductor of the school choir.
Ari has studied piano since he was 4 and composition since he was 5. He currently studies piano with Ellen Bildersee and composition with Daniel Shapiro, a composer himself who is currently a professor of theory and counterpoint at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Although currently in the process of college applications for conservatory, Ari composed Fanfare: A New Beginning as part of the opening ceremonies for the 2011 JCC Maccabi Games, held in his hometown Philadelphia. The Maccabi Games had over 1,000 representatives from all around the world, including Canada, Venezuela, Israel, and many other countries.
