{"id":167823,"date":"2025-01-14T11:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T09:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=167823"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:42:35","slug":"remembering_guy_illouz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/remembering_guy_illouz\/","title":{"rendered":"A Musical Gift Left Behind: Remembering Guy Illouz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When her infant son, Guy Illouz, cried, Doris Liber put on the MTV network and danced with him to the music videos. While crawling, he sometimes moved to the beat. As a boy, he picked at his mother\u2019s guitar; at age 7 he went to an after-school conservatory and continued taking guitar lessons even during summer breaks. In third grade, he wrote his first song. In fourth grade, he began playing electric guitar, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was incredible. It was something. He was born with a rhythm, that boy,\u201d said Liber, a native of the New York City borough of Queens who today lives in the central Israeli city of Ra’anana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illouz served in the Israel Defense Forces\u2019 Golani Brigade and studied psychology in college for a bit, but he worked in the music industry as a stagehand, sound specialist and backliner \u2014 someone whose many tasks included quickly replacing snapped guitar strings \u2014 at concerts of some of Israel\u2019s leading singers and bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His love for music is what drew Illouz, 26, to the Tribe of Nova festival, where Hamas terrorists shot him during their October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel\u2019s western Negev. They kidnapped him to the Gaza Strip, where he died at a hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Guy2\"
Guy Illouz, z”l<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Years have passed since they last worked together, but Moshe Levi continues to feel Illouz\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illouz stood out for his willingness to service the musicians and their crews, for his encouragement and for being humble, said Levi, a well-known Israeli pianist and music producer who\u2019s the longtime musical director for songwriter-singer Shalom Hanoch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember I felt it from the first minute, that you\u2019ve met someone who simply illuminates the place you are in and gives you the feeling you\u2019re the most important, valued person in the world,\u201d Levi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Israeli
Israeli singer Matti Caspi (c. in gray jacket) with his crew, including Guy Illouz (standing, far right), courtesy of Doris Liber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019d say how amazing it was that we had him. You could feel the happiness beyond his smile. I\u2019d feel like I was coming to a performance just to meet Guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only after Illouz\u2019s death that Liber and some of Guy\u2019s friends discovered numerous songs he composed and played, saved on his phone and laptop. Nearly all were instrumental and untitled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe had a sense of music. He\u2019d write lyrics for some songs, but he wrote them for himself without playing them for us,\u201d said Aviv Kobi, Illouz\u2019s friend since nursery school. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame he didn\u2019t play them for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to some of Guy’s music in the video below, uploaded to Youtube by his stepfather Shmulik Gritzer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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