In recent years, Oded Zehavi has emerged as a major voice in a new generation of Israeli composers. Born in Jerusalem in 1961, he considers his major teachers to have been George Crumb (U.S.A.) and Andre Hajdu (Israel). After completing doctoral studies at SUNY-Stony Brook with Sheila Silver, Zehavi returned to his native Israel in 1992. He has held the post of composer-in-residence for the Haifa Symphony Orchestra as well as the Israel Chamber Orchestra and has been Professor of Composition and acting Chair of the Music Department at Haifa University since 1995.

Oded Zehavi's music has been performed, commissioned and recorded by such ensembles as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kirov Opera Orchestra under Valery Gergeiev, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin and Antonio Pappano. the Northwestern German Philharmonic, the Israel Chamber Orchestra under Shlomo Mintz, Chanticleer, the New York University Chamber Players, Musica Viva Italia and by musicians such as flautists Samuel Baron and Eugenia Zukerman, as well as conductors David Robertson, Marek Janovsky and David Porcelijn.

Zehavi has been the recipient of numerous commissions, awards and honors such as the Barlow Foundation Commission (for the BYU Chamber Orchestra), an Annenberg Fellowship and the 1995 Prime Minister's Prize for music composition given by Shimon Peres. Future commissions include a work to be premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2001 for the Huberman String Quartet and a short composition for piano solo for the next Rubinstein Piano Competition.

A prolific composer for the symphonic and concert hall, Zehavi is equally at home with composition for pop/rock, theater, film and dance. He has collaborated numerous times with major Israeli performers and the national theater and dance companies, as well as scoring for Israeli feature films and documentaries for the BBC, ABC and Canal Plus Television.