Brought up in New York in predominantly Yiddish cultural surroundings, Yehudi Wyner studied at the Juilliard School, at Yale with Hindemith and at Harvard with Randall Thompson and Walter Piston, meeting other Jewish and Israeli composers at the Brandeis Arts Institute in California. He later joined the teaching staff of Brandeis University, after 14 years of teaching at Yale.

Vocal and Instrumental Music
A number of Wyner’s works reflect his Jewish background and interests. He wrote incidental music for Isaac Bashevis Singer’s play The Mirror, from which he derived a concert suite. His Passover Offering reflects the symbolism of the festival, and Tants un Maysele (‘Dance and Little Story’) for clarinet, violin, cello and piano was written in response to a commission for a work of Jewish character.