Biography
Yati Durant is a U.S. composer, lecturer, trumpeter, and conductor based in Berlin, Germany. He began his music studies at the age of 7, excelling in piano, composition, and trumpet. As a young trumpet player and jazz musician, he studied with Thara Memory, and earned regional prizes, co-founding the experimental jazz ensemble Honey Junkie and his own band, The Yati Durant Project Band. His talent led to commissions funded by the National Endowment of the Arts, including Old Town Tribute in 1996. Yati's career expanded when he moved to New York in the mid-1990’s to compose TV and film music for clients like HBO, Walt Disney Productions, Fox, and many others.
In 1997, a commission from The Juilliard School’s Ensemble America led him to receive a scholarship to study at La Schola Cantorum in Paris. It was then that Yati met the Polish composer Krzysztof Meyer, who offered him a place in his composition class at the State Conservatory of Music in Cologne, Germany. Yati completed his studies there in 2005 by composing for Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent film The Battleship Potemkin, which earned him a prestigious first Meisterklasse Konzertexam. He has also studied from notable figures like George Crumb, Philip Lasser, Narcis Bonet, Lee Konitz, and Jonathan Brett. In 2021, he attained a Ph.D. in Composition with his research project Saundaryalahari, supervised by Prof. Peter Nelson.
Yati's compositions and film scores have received many prizes from International festivals, including a Panorama Public Prize at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival for Erika Rabau – Der Puck von Berlin and a BAFA National Commerce Film Award nomination for the WDR/ARD documentary Ein Klavier geht um die Welt. He is a finalist of the 2009 Concorso Giovani Musicisti Europei in Aosta, Italy with his score to C. Chaplin’s The Vagabond. He was Music Director and Conductor of the Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra (2010 - 2019), Guest Conductor at Staatsorchester Braunschweig, Neue Rheinisches Kammerorchester, and other renowned orchestras at prestigious film events throughout Europe.
As a jazz trumpeter and electroacoustic musician, Yati performs regularly throughout Europe, USA, India and South America with concerts in many genres. Additionally, Yati has an extensive pedagogic background, having served as Lecturer in Music, Sound, and the Moving Image and Programme Director of the renowned MSc in Composition for Screen at the University of Edinburgh from 2010-2019. He has taught courses, workshops and masterclasses at esteemed institutions world-wide, including Manchester University, Leeds College of Music, Keele University, RCM London, HFF Munich, Bath-Spa University, ArtEZ Arnhem, ZHdK (Zurich Academy of the Arts), HKU Utrecht, HEM Genève, Conservatorio di Musica “Francesco Venezze” Rovigo, Italy, Franz Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, and many others.
Yati was Mentor-in-Residence for the WDR Funkhausorchester from 2021 - 2023. He holds advisory, competition jury, and organisational roles in international film music festivals and scoring competitions, including Soundtrack_Cologne, Soundtrack_Zurich, Krakow Film Music Festival, Music&Cinema Marseille, Oticons Faculty, Filmfest Ghent WSA, and others. Currently, Yati serves as a Director of the International Media Music and Sound Arts Network in Education (IMMSANE), and as Director of MSCN Film Music Festivals Academy.
