Noam Sheriff was born in Tel-Aviv in 1935. He studied composition and conducting in Tel-Aviv with Paul Ben-Chaim, in Berlin with Boris Blacher, and in Salzburg with Igor Markevitch. He also studied philosophy at Jerusalem University.

Following the premiere of his work, Festival Prelude, by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein in 1957, he won several prizes in composition and conducting competitions and received many commissions from, among others, the Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. His works are regularly performed in Israel and all over the world by artists such as Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo, Giulini, Steinberg, and others.

In his music one finds an original solution to the fusion between East and West, between the musical elements of the ancient Mediterranean countries and the musical culture of the West.

In 1973, Sheriff became the musical director of the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, which he conducted until 1982. From 1983 to 1986, he taught orchestration at the Cologne Musikhochschule and gave a conducting course at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. From 1989 to 1995, he was the musical director of the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, which performed, under his baton, at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 1994 and at other European festivals.

From 1963 to 1989, he taught composition and conducting in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. During those years he also directed many music festivals in Israel as well as various television and radio programs.

Since 1990, Sheriff has been professor of composition and conducting at Tel-Aviv University’s Rubin Academy of Music. In July 1998, he was elected to be director of this Academy.