​Claude Abravanel, born July 16, 1924, Montreux, Switzerland.  Died December 14, 2012.

Israeli composer and musicologist. His father was a pharmacist and his mother a singer. From early age he accompanied his mother on the piano with the best of Lieder repertoire.

From 1944-1948 he studied music theory and piano with Dinu Lipatti at the Conservatoire de Musique, Geneva. Between 1948-1951 Abravanel studied composition with Arthur Honegger and piano with Yvonne Lefebure at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. In 1951 he emigrated to Israel and a year later became a lecturer in music theory, harmony and counterpoint at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, Jerusalem. In 1958 he founded a music library within the Academy which he directed until his retirement, in 1992. In 1965 Abravanel was appointed director of the Academy's Music Instruments Museum, and in 1988 founded, also at the academy, an Israeli Music Archive, both of which he directed until 2004. From 1993 Abravanel has been serving as a volunteer archivist at the Music Department of the National Library. Abravanel composed orchestral, chamber and solo music, as well as songs.

Among his works:

 ·   Psalms for high voice and piano (1960) 
 ·   Jerusalem for voice and orchestra, text by Yolande Gerstl (1972)
 ·   Elegie for low voice and flute, text by Nathan Yonathan (1975) 
 ·   Baqasha (Supplication) for flute and piano (1981)