Lavry Marc Isaakovich (real name: Markus Levin) (22 December 1903, Riga — 24 March 1967, Haifa) — composer, conductor.

Marc Lavry studied at the Latvian Conservatory (piano class of H. Schmidt) and at the Leipzig Conservatory (composition with P. Graener, piano with R. Teichmüller, conducting with H. Scherchen). He also took private lessons in composition from Alexander Glazunov and in conducting from Bruno Walter.

From 1926 to 1932, Lavry worked in Germany, conducting orchestras in Saarbrücken and Berlin. During the summer seasons of 1927, 1930, and 1931, he gave guest performances in Riga. From 1932 to 1935, he resided permanently in Riga, conducting individual performances at the Latvian National Opera and symphonic concerts. He led open-air performances with the Riga Symphony Orchestra in Verman Park and Jurmala, and conducted the Latvian Radio Orchestra.

He frequently performed music from films and operettas, featuring soloists such as M. Vetra, M. Ancharov, and N. Tallini, among others. From 1933 to 1935, he served as conductor of the Jewish Theater Orchestra, with which he also gave symphonic concerts performing works from the classical repertoire as well as music by Jewish composers — Mikhail Gnesin, Joel Engel, Ernest Bloch, Grigory Brandman, Gustav Mahler, and Yuri Krein — and his own compositions. Among the Riga soloists who performed with him were A. Metz, M. Zalmanovich, R. Otsup, Ya. Ioffe, O. Ryss, and others.

Lavry toured extensively throughout Europe and Egypt. In 1935, he emigrated to Palestine, where he continued his work as a composer and conductor.

From 1941 to 1947, he was conductor of the Palestine People’s Opera, and from 1947 to 1949, of the People’s Symphony Orchestra. Between 1950 and 1958, he headed the music department at the Israeli radio station Kol Zion LaGolah (“The Voice of Zion to the Diaspora”). In 1962, he worked as conductor of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra.

Lavry was one of the pioneers of popular Israeli song, skillfully blending Middle Eastern folk motifs (which he collected and studied) with Eastern European Jewish melodies.

He authored around 350 musical works, including:

Symphonic poems: Emek (1937), Carmel (1963)

Symphonic pictures: Ahasverus (1933), Ukrainian Night, Stalingrad (1943)

Symphonic variations on Latvian themes: Div’ dūjiņas (1931), Ceļš uz dzimteni (1932, after J. Zālītis)

Hasidic Dance (1933)

Operas: Guard Dan (1945), Tamar and Yehuda (1958)

Operetta: Jazz and Love (1930)

Ballets: Dance Tournament (1930), Siege of Brest (1930)

Oratorios: Song of Songs (1940), Esther (1951–52), Sabbath Liturgy (1951–52), By the Rivers of Babylon, Menachem Mendel the Dreamer

Symphonies: Warsaw Ghetto (1945), Liberation (1949)

Suites: Israeli Village Dances, Gideon

Capriccio: In the Sun (1966)

Film, theater, and ballet music, including for the Latvian film The Son of the People (1931)

Concertos for piano, violin, flute, and harp

Piano pieces and vocal works, such as Motherland and Lāčplēsis, recorded in the late 1930s by A. Kaktiņš.

Lavry’s music — vibrant, melodic, and national in spirit — became a cornerstone of early Israeli musical culture.