Mendi Rodan

Mendi Rodan (; 17 April 1929 – 9 May 2009) was an Israeli conductor and educator.

Biography Mendi Rodan (Rosenblum) was born in Iaşi, Romania, one of three children of Solomon and Miriam Rosenblum. Mendi began playing the violin at the age of five. His parents made sure that all the children got extra tuition in languages, mathematics, physical education and music. In 1941 Mendi's father and many of his relatives were murdered in pogroms carried out against the Jews of Iaşi. Mendi, his mother and his brothers survived the war but suffered from extreme financial hardship.

After the liberation of Romania from presbyterian rule, Rodan began studying engineering, but eventually he abandoned these studies. One of his musical mentors and teachers was Mirce Bersan, as well as the Armenian violinist Garabet Avakian. He studied conducting with the noted Romanian conductor Constantin Silvestri at the Romanian National Academy of Music in Bucharest. In the field of chamber music, Rodan was the pupil of the Jewish composer Michai Andryko. In 1957, Rodan pursued advanced studies in conducting and chamber music at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.

In 1953 Rodan married Judith, with whom he had two children. Around this time, he changed his surname to Rodan.

Career in Romania At the age of 16, Rodan became first violinist of the National Symphony of Romania. At the age of 24, he became its conductor. To augment his salary, he gave private lessons in mathematics. In 1958, he applied for a permit to immigrate to Israel. As a result of the request he was fired from all his positions with the orchestra in Bucharest and forced to move to Bacău until his departure. He headed the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and sat on the Council for Art and Culture of the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Israeli Council for Higher Education. From 2004, he was a professor of conducting in the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University.

Conductors who studied with Rodan included Sivan Albo Ben-Hur, Omer Arieli, Roï Azoulay, Amos Boasson, Ronen Borshevsky, Rani Calderon, Yaniv Dinur, Shmuel Elbaz, Yaron Gottfried, Luis Gorelik, Paul Shewan, Oded Shomrony, Nayden Todorov, Omer Meir Wellber, and Saul Zaks.

Awards and commemoration Rodan was awarded the Medal of Distinction of the Republic of Italy.

In honor of his 80th birthday, the Israel Stage Orchestra held a concert at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art led by seven young conductors who had studied with Rodan. Rodan himself was not present due to illness.

Death Rodan died of cancer on 9 May 2009. At a concert that took place on the day of his death, the audience and Israel Philharmonic observed a moment of silence in his honor. Maestro Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic issued a statement expressing their condolences to the Rodan family and to the musical community in Israel, lowered their heads "at the passing of a musician of giant stature, a sensitive, Renaissance man, a true friend and a unique and talented conductor".