| Nir Brand | |
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| Born | Nir Chaim Brandt June 6, 1961 Beersheba, Israel |
Nir Brand (born June 6, 1961) is an Israeli conductor and musician.
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Brand studied piano and double bass while growing up in Beer Sheva. His first big break came at the age of 17 when Chick Corea invited him to join Chick on stage at the Jerusalem International Convention Center at the piano. Nir wowed the audience, critics and Mr. Corea himself. During his army service, Nir performed with the famous Army Entertainment Group working with top Israeli musicians such as Rita and Rami Kleinstein, Hanokh Rosen and others. After leaving the army, Nir studied conducting and composition at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv University.
A chance meeting at a restaurant with Yuval Dor, member of the band Hakol Over Habibi and a unique solo artist himself, led to building Nir's own enormously successful one man show Life Is A Concert which he has presented to a wide range of audiences has performed more than 2,000 shows up to date. In 2001, Brand made his American debut performance of Life Is A Concert in New York and Washington, D.C..
In 2001, Brand faced a great number of people, suggesting that he creates a similar programme for children, which gave birth to ClassiKid. Today, ClassiKid is a musical experience that is simultaneously entertaining and educational. Its main purpose is to help develop a child's own sense of self and then build on that individuality to encourage mutual respect and understanding of others and encourage teamwork. Throughohut the programme children are given a guided tour of the history of music with a variety of different classical musical styles and pieces being utilised within the classes to emphasise the lessons being imparted by the musician.
Each year of the programme is based on 7 separate events, varying in size from those for each individual class to those for the whole school. Over 100,000 students have joined the programme so far, and the numbers are expected to get higher in the next few years. Cities in which the program is taught, include Sderot and Ashkelon, which is helping the kids to cope with the recent attacks caused by Hamas.