Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Salmon studied composition with Richard Strauss at the Berlin Academy of the Arts, and later worked as a repetiteur at the Berlin Staatsoper, singer at the Hamburg Opera, and conductor in Baden. He immigrated to Palestine in 1933, and was the first musical director of the Palestine Broadcasting Service (later Kol Israel), from 1936-1958, later becoming the director of Kol Israel's transcription-exchange service until 1962. Salmon also taught at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Josef Tal (b. Pine, Germany 1910 - Jerusalem 2008, immigrated in 1934), composer, pianist, conductor, and lecturer, has gained an exceptional reception in the last decades. As one of the most published local composers, about 100 of his pieces have been published by the Israel Music Institute. He was the most distinctive among the first generation of composers who principally opposed the use of folklorism and orientalism. This may have reflected his education in Berlin in the late 1920's, where he was immensely influenced by the Second Viennese school.