Aviv and Arik Livnat

Aviv served as a guitarist in the Israel Air Force band. He studied composition and theory with Prof. Sergiu Natra and Prof. Abel Ehrlich, guitar with Gil Dor, and spent time with Pat Metheny, playing together with him. During a year in Paris he studied voice with Nicole Monnastaire and painted.

Most of the melodies on the brothers' albums are his, including the settings of Cavafy, Pessoa and Leah Goldberg on Meditation of the Sad Soul. Alongside music he exhibited paintings in Israel and Sweden from 1986 onward, and his paintings were the visual identity of the Golden Peacock releases. The Raz-Ram arts foundation for orphaned and needy children began as his vision.

He studied philosophy and art at Tel Aviv University and went on to a doctorate. Today Dr. Aviv Livnat works as an artist, jazz guitarist and researcher of the philosophy of art, and is affiliated with the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. In February 2025 he opened the solo exhibition “A Naked and Astonished Form Opening to the Reception of Hidden Content” at the Art Laboratory, curated by Merav Raht: a month of 22 events built on Bruno Schulz's Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass.

Arik was a saxophone soloist in the IDF Orchestra. He studied classical flute with Sergio Feidman, jazz flute with Roman Kunsman and saxophone with Peter Wertheimer, and theory and composition with Menachem Wiesenberg and Ilan Mochiach. He recorded and performed with leading Israeli artists and with Stevie Wonder.

A graduate of the Yoram Loewenstein Acting Studio, he acted at the Haifa Theatre, Beit Lessin and the Orna Porat Theatre for children and youth, and hosted programmes on Israeli Educational Television and Channel 2. He holds a B.A. in History and Child Culture & Education from Tel Aviv University.

Today he performs through Arik Livnat Productions: “Saxophone from the Movies”, “Israeli Saxophone”, the intimate “Arik in the Living Room”, “Face 2 Face” with pianist Yoav Cohen, and “A Personal Story” about the father he never met. He writes and produces concert series for children, teaches music across Israel (including the jazz programme at Thelma Yellin), and has judged young musicians for the IDF, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Ministry of Education. He also developed the “shofarik”, a hybrid of saxophone and shofar.