Yaron Deutsch (born in Israel in 1978) is a guitarist and artistic director of Ensemble Nikel. At age eighteen, he founded and led his first group – Ofek III – a fusion trio playing his own compositions. In 1999, he enrolled and did his studies at the “Rubin Academy for Music and Dance” in Jerusalem under the instruction of guitarists Steve Paskof and Yossi Levi. In 2006 together with saxophonist Gan Lev he founded the Tel Aviv based Ensemble for Contemporary Music – Ensemble Nikel.
With the ensemble and as a soloist he has been frequently collaborating with both established and young composers, giving world premiere performances to pieces by Michael Beil, Franck Bedrossian, Pierluigi Billone, Raphaël Cendo, Chaya Czernowin, Clemens Gadenstätter, Bernard Gander, Philippe Hurel, Eduardo Moguillansky, Marco Momi, Helmut Oehring, Stefan Prins and Michael Wertmüller to name a few.
As a guest performer he is regularly playing with Ensemble Klangforum Wien. Occasional guest performances he had with Ensemble Ascolta (Stuttgart), Ensemble Court Circuit (Paris), Ensemble Ictus (Brussels), Ensemble Phace (Vienna), The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, RAI Orchestra (Turin), Vienna Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in which he played under conductors Baldur Brönnimann, Peter Eötvös, Johannes Kalitzke, Zubin Mehta, George Elie Octors, Emilio Pomarico and Pascal Rophé among others.
In addition he is also a member of the free improv trio – Ministry of Bad Decisions together with drummer Brian Archinal and composer-improviser, Stefan Prins. Besides being an active musician, Deutsch is also the director of “Tzlil Meudcan” (Hebrew: “Update Tone”) – The International Summer Course & Festival for Contemporary Music in Israel. It is a structure he initiated and established for the promotion of contemporary music where composers Chaya Czernowin & Steven Takasugi are leading the composition class and performers from various leading ensembles in Europe are coaching young performers in the practice of contemporary music performance.