YAIR KLINGER
Married and father of 3 children, grandfather of 8 grandchildren
1944 – Born and raised in Tel Aviv
1956-1961 – Member and counselor in the Scouts, "Kehilla" tribe, Tel Aviv
1961 – Member of the Israeli Scouts delegation to the USA for 3 months
1962-1964 – Military service in the Nahal Paratroopers unit as part of the Scouts' Nahal program
Coordinator of the "Kehilla" Scouts tribe in Tel Aviv
Education
"Bilu" Religious State Elementary School, Ironi Alef High School, Tel Aviv
1964-1966 – Tel Aviv University: Department of Philosophy
Department of Theater (Peter Frye and Yoram Boker)
Acting studio under the direction of Nola Chilton
Acting studio of the Cameri Theatre
1973-1975 – Studied music for films in Paris, France (Ecole Normale)
Actor-singer and composer in theater, 1965-1971
1965-1967 – Actor-singer at the "Cameri Theatre" (in the plays: "Utz Li Gutz Li", "The Dragon", "Queen Esther").
1967 – Lead role as Daniel Cohn-Bendit in the musical "Something Unusual" (by Amos Keinan / Yohanan Zara’i, Aryeh Levanon) at the "Ohel Theatre."
1968 – Actor-singer in the play "My Jerusalem" at the "Khan Theatre" in Jerusalem, and performed as a soloist the song "Send the List" (lyrics: Dan Almagor, music: Yair Klinger).
1970 – Actor-singer in the production "Despair Sitting on a Bench", featuring songs by Jacques Brel.
1971 – Joined the "Carmon" Ensemble as a singer and performed with them at the Olympia in Paris for a month.
Musical Groups in Which Klinger Participated as a Singer
1970-1971 – Member of the group "The Accidental Trio" with Tsila Dagan, Danny Messing, and Yair Klinger.
The group recorded several songs, the most famous being "Ballad for a Calendar" and "Rosa Marzipan", both composed by Yair Klinger.
In 1971, the trio performed at the "Children’s Song Festival", where they performed the lullaby "Lullaby" (Numi Yalda) (lyrics: Arianna Harn, music: Yair Klinger). The song was later performed by Shlomo Artzi.
1971-1980 – The duo "Sylvan and Yair". The duo was formed during Yair's time in Paris. They performed at the Israeli Song Festival in 1973 with the song "With You as Always", and in the Israeli Song Festival in 1974 with the song "Song for Father and Mother" (lyrics and music by Yair Klinger).
1974 – The duo "Sylvan and Yair" won the Best Performance award at the Paris Festival with the song "Alex My Friend", written and composed by Yair Klinger.
1972-1980 – The duo performed as the Israeli duo Les Sabras during Rika Zaraï’s tour, at the Olympia with Joe Dassin, and in numerous performances on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism in France and across Europe, with the aim of promoting European tourism to Israel.
1985-1988 – The band "4 of Hearts" with singers Yair Klinger, Sylvan Margie, Ruthie Ben Avraham, and Pnina Brik. They performed in the Kdam Eurovision in 1985 with the song "We Have a Song", and again in the Kdam Eurovision in 1986 with the song "He Will Come". Other notable songs by the band include "Radio Plays", "Under the Sign of Libra", and "The Girl with the Seagulls" (all composed by Yair Klinger).
Awards and Recognition
1975 – The song "Alex", performed by the duo "Sylvan & Yair", won the Best Performance Award at the International Festival of the City of Paris.
1982 – The song "Love is Love", performed by Alessandra Mussolini, won the Silver Award at the Tokyo Festival.
2000 – The choir "Kolot Bat Yam", conducted by Yair Klinger, won a Gold Medal at the International Choir Competition organized by INTERCULTUR in Linz, Austria.
2001 – The song "Ein Davar", performed by Tal Sondak, won the Pre Eurovision and represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001.
2017 – Yair Klinger received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli Artists Association (EMI).
2022 – The choirs "HaRaananim" and "Kramim", conducted by Klinger, won Gold Medals at the "MILA Scale" competition.
2024 – An honorary award from Bar-Ilan University for Lifetime Achievement in Hebrew Song and contributions to Israeli culture.
2024- ACUM Lifetime Achievement Award
