Amikam Kimelman

Amikam Kimelman

Amikam Kimelman is a saxophonist, arranger and producer. Graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music at the Tel Aviv University, and Berklee College of Music. Co-leader of the legendary jazz group ‘Overdraft’ and leader of The ‘Hard Jazz Knights’ and ‘The Human Factory’ jazz quintets. Amikam performed in festivals throughout the world, such as Grahamstown (SA), Pretoria (SA), Almati (Kazakhstan), Baku (Azerbaijan), EU Jazz Express (Budapest), Essen (W. Germany) and Barcelona (Spain) as well as numerous performances around Israel. Played with Joanne Brackeen, Lew Soloff, Jeff Berlin, Franck Amsallem, Jean Loup Longnon, Sheila Jordan, Mike del Ferro, Inaki Sandoval, Billy Cobham, Ari Hoenig and Lou Marini, arranged and composed for The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, The Israel Simfonietta – Beer Sheva, for top Israeli jazz, pop and rock stars such as Rami Kleinstein, Shalom Hanoch, Nurit Galron, Marina Maximilian Blumin, Alon Olearchik, Yehoram Gaon, and Gidi Gov, for prime time television shows and for major musical events in Israel. Amikam was the general and academic director of Israel’s largest music college, the Rimon School of Music between the years 1990 and 2014 and at present directs the external studies program of Rimon and the music department of Nofei Habesor high school at Eshkol Regional County in the Negev. He is the musical director of The Tel Aviv Jazz Orchestra and artistic director of the Israeli label Jazz 972 and founder/musical director of the International Jaffa Jazz Festival.