Rachel Bluwstein Sela (September 20 (Julian calendar), 1890 - April 16, 1931) was a Hebrew poet who immigrated to Palestine in 1909. She is known by her first name, Rachel, (Hebrew: רחל‎) or as Rachel the poetess (Hebrew: רחל המשוררת‎).

Rachel was born in Saratov in Russia on September 20, 1890, the eleventh daughter of Isser-Leib and Sophia Bluwstein, and granddaughter of the rabbi of the Jewish community in Kiev. During her childhood, her family moved to Poltava, Ukraine, where she attended a Russian-speaking Jewish school and, later, a secular high school. She began writing poetry at the age of 15. When she was 17, she moved to Kiev and began studying painting.

At the age of 19, Rachel visited Eretz Israel with her sister en route to Italy, where they were planning to study art and philosophy. They decided to stay on as Zionist pioneers, learning Hebrew by listening to children’s chatter in kindergartens . They settled in Rehovot and worked in the orchards. Later, Rachel moved to Kvutzat Kinneret on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where she studied and worked in a women's agricultural school. At Kinneret, she met Zionist leader A. D. Gordon who was to be a great influence on her life, and to whom she dedicated her first Hebrew poem. During this time, she also met and had a romantic relationship with Zalman Rubshov - object of many of her love poems^{[citation needed]}- who later became known as Zalman Shazar and was the third president of Israel.

Rachel (Hebrew: רחל, Modern Raḥel Tiberian Rāḫēl, Rāḥēl ISO 259-3 Raḥel ; meaning "ewe") as described in the Bible, is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife. Jacob was her first cousin, and she was the youngest niece of Rebecca.

Rachel is first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is watering her lamb. He had traveled a great distance to find his mother's brother, Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his furious twin brother, Esau.

During Jacob's stay, he fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work seven years for Laban in return for her hand in marriage. On the night of the wedding, the bride was veiled and Jacob did not notice that Leah, Rachel's older sister, had been substituted for Rachel. Whereas "Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful," "Leah had tender eyes". Later Jacob confronted Laban, who excused his own deception by insisting that the older sister should marry first. He assured Jacob that after his wedding week was finished, he could take Rachel as a wife as well, and work another seven years as payment for her.

Naomi Shemer (Hebrew: נעמי שמר‎; July 13, 1930 – June 26, 2004) was a leadingIsraeli songwriter hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry."

Naomi Semer was born on Kvutzat Kinneret, a kibbutz her parents had helped found, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the 1950s she served in the Israeli Defense Force's Nahal entertainment troupe, and studied music at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. She first married actor Gideon Shemer and had a daughter, Lali. They were later divorced; she went on to marry attorney Mordechai Horowitz, with whom she had a son, Ariel.

Shemer continued to write and perform until her death. She died of cancer in 2004, aged 73.

Shemer did her own songwriting and composing, set famous poems to music, such as those of the Israeli poet, Rachel, and adapted well-known songs into Hebrew, such as the Beatles songs "Let It Be."^{[citation needed]}

She composed in 1963 Hurshat Ha'Eucalyptus (The Eucalyptus Grove), a song that evokes Kvutzat Kinneret where she was born, and sung in a recent version by Ishtar.

Graciela Araya (born May 16, 1962) is an Austrian mezzo-soprano of Chilean birth who has had a prolific international opera career since the early 1980s. Though her repertoire is extensive, her signature part is the title role in Carmen which she has performed over 400 times.

Born in Concepción, Chile, Araya was a voice student of Marta Duran in Santiago and Tomas Demolitsas in São Paulo. She made her stage debut in Santiago in 1981 as Maria in West Side Story. She made her first opera appearance the following year as Enrichetta di Francia in I puritani at the Municipal Theater of Santiago with Christina Deutekom as Elvira and Carlo Felice Cillario conducting. In 1983 she made appearances at the Theatro Municipal in São Paulo and the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1984 Araya won a scholarship to study and perform at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She made her European debut with the company that year as Gedankenstimme in the world premiere of Siegfried Matthus's Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke under the direction of Maximilian Schell. After finishing her internship in Berlin, she joined the Aachen Opera where she was committed for two years. She then sang for three years with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein before joining the roster of principal artists at the Vienna State Opera where she was committed for 12 seasons. She became an Austrian citizen while working in Vienna.

Josef Tal (Hebrew: יוסף טל), (September 18, 1910 – August 25, 2008) was an Israeli composer. He wrote three Hebrew operas; four German operas; dramatic scenes; six symphonies; thirteen concerti; chamber music, including three string quartets; instrumental works; and electronic compositions. He is considered one of the founding fathers of Israeli art music

Josef Tal was born Joseph Grünthal in the town of Pinne (now Pniewy), near Poznań, German Empire (present-day Poland). Soon after his birth his family (parents Ottilie and Rabbi Julius Grünthal, and his elder sister Grete), moved to Berlin, where the family managed a private orphanage. Rabbi Julius Grünthal was a docent in the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies (Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums), specializing in the philology of ancient languages.[3]

Tal's first encounter with music was at the synagogue, where there was a choir and his grandfather served as a non-professional cantor. After attending his first concert, he began to take piano lessons. Tal was admitted to the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and studied with Max Trapp (piano and composition), Heinz Tiessen (theory), Max Saal (harp), Curt Sachs (instrumentation), Fritz Flemming (oboe), Georg Schünemann (history of music), Charlotte Pfeffer and Siegfried Borris (ear training), Siegfried Ochs (choir singing), Leonid Kreutzer (piano methodology), and Julius Prüwer (conducting). Paul Hindemith —his composition and theory teacher— introduced him to Friedrich Trautwein, who directed the electronic music studio in the building cellar. Tal completed his studies in the academy in 1931, and married dancer Rosie Löwenthal one year later. He worked giving piano lessons and accompanying dancers, singers, and silent movies.