Jan Freidlin was born in Chita (Southern Siberia) in 1944. He studied composition and theory with A. Kogan at the Odessa State Conservatory and then served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Odessa Philharmonic Society Jazz Orchestra. He was the head of the music theory department at the Stolyarsky Special Music College from 1974 until 1990. He currently teaches at the Levinsky College of Music in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Freidlin has composed music for many television programs, 26 theatre plays and 7 feature films. Many of his works have been performed in Russia, Israel, Germany, Australia, and the USA. He has won many distinguished awards for composition, including the Grand Prix of Warna Cinema Festival for the original music of the movie The Summer has Begun (1978), and 1st Prize for his chamber work Twilight Music for Flute, Violin and Piano in the Tampa Bay Composers Forum Prize for Excellence in 2002.