April 20, 1997 The military's maestro By URIEL HEILMAN TEL AVIV As IDF orchestra conductor Izhak Graziani recalls his first days as a fledgling musician in Israel, he settles back into the leather chair in his office at a Tel Aviv military base with a smile on his face. After his release from military service shortly after his arrival in the country in 1948, he remembers, "my wife made me stop playing nightclubs, so I took a job teaching music at a school." Since then, he has rarely turned down a gig. At age 72, Ziko, as Bulgarian-born Graziani is universally called by all who know him, has been the head of the IDF orchestra for 35 years. Before he assumed the position of permanent conductor in 1962, Ziko worked with youth orchestras, became the musical director of a popular radio show called Tevat Noar, and wrote music for local films and musicals, affording him the opportunity to work with now-famous Israeli musicians, including Yehoram Gaon, Shlomo Artzi and Arik Einstein. Ziko's first push toward music in the military was at a performance in the years following the founding of the state. It was the first time that the anthem of the pre- state underground Lehi, "Hayalim Almonim," was played for a general audience. He describes his initial nervousness and excitement as the sounds of the tune began to reverberate that night through the Tel Aviv auditorium; he was apprehensive about how the audience would react. When the piece was finished, the audience gave its resounding approval with a standing ovation for Ziko and the orchestra. Several days later, he received a letter of appreciation from the wife of Avraham "Yair" Stern, the head of the Lehi. "Until today people tell stories about it," he boasts. Ziko was a member of the IDF orchestra during his regular military service a decade before he took the job as permanent conductor with the IDF. During his service, he spent his days playing in the largely Bulgarian 70-member IDF orchestra and his nights in a house in Jaffa, which he shared with several Arabs. At the time, his wife and daughter were living in an old Arab house given to them by the Jewish Agency in the abandoned Arab village of Kawasa, near Haifa. "Times were different then," he notes. The IDF orchestra often serves as a motivating force for the soldiers on front lines. Ziko remembers the days of heavy fighting during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when members of the orchestra would wake up at 4:30 a.m. and begin performing as early as 6. "Wherever we found soldiers, we played," he says. Opposite Ziko's chair is a photograph of the 500- strong Armored Corps chorus of the Yom Kippur War. "I always look at the picture and I don't know what happened to them," he says with a sigh. "I don't know how many lived past that war." ON OCTOBER 29, 1973, Armored Corps Day, Ziko was intent on performing for the tank units, even though they were poised on the battle lines at the Suez Canal. The orchestra began its journey under cover of night, and when the members crossed the Suez Canal shortly after daybreak, they met soldiers who were still in a state of shocked grief, having already lost friends and comrades in battle. "We weren't sure what to play," he explains, describing the somber mood. So the orchestra began with emotional songs, opening with "Jerusalem of Gold" and "Lu Yehi," with instrumentalists crying along with the soldiers. "Slowly, slowly we began to slip happy songs in," recalls Ziko, and soon the audience was clapping enthusiastically and singing along to the music. Ziko describes how a general once erupted in fury at him for playing on the border in the days before the Six Day War. "'You are gathering soldiers, and the Syrians are watching us from the Hermon,' he yelled. It's true. It was a concentration of soldiers, and they could have blown us all up," Ziko concedes. Today the orchestra's repertoire includes over 3,000 songs, with which players must be familiar without rehearsal. Taking a heavy binder off his shelf, Ziko points out a list of the 478 appearances of the IDF orchestra in 1995: concerts, parades, ceremonies, and private affairs for both the military and civilians. Occasionally, they even get invited to perform abroad, though Ziko says he can't bear to stay away from Israel for long. Every year, some 400 hopeful youngsters try out for the 18 to 20 orchestral spots that open up. "Our people are the best," insists Ziko, recalling a recent phone conversation in which someone said he was sending him the best trumpeter in Afula. "Afula!?" cries Ziko. "I told him, 'I take the best trumpeters in the country.'" The intensive regimen for the soldiers in the IDF orchestra, who Ziko insists work just as hard as other soldiers in the military, includes an intensive, two-year course in which men complete 2,160 hours and women 1,600 hours. Many graduates of the program go on to careers in the music world. According to Ziko, half of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra came from the IDF orchestra. Ziko notes there is an increase in the proportion of women in the orchestra, which he attributes to males' lack of patience with instruments that require diligent practice. Ziko, who will soon be a great-grandfather, has every intention of continuing as conductor. "I'll be here as long as they need me."