After his work Festival Prelude premiered during the opening of the Mann Auditorium in Tel-Aviv in 1957 performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Bernstein , Noam Sheriff received numerous prizes at various composing and conducting competitions. His works were commissioned by prominent ensembles such as the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic; his compositions have been performed regularly in Israel and throughout the world by acclaimed artists.

Sheriff‘s music offers an original solution to the fusion between East and West, between musical elements of the ancient Mediterranean  and the musical culture of the Orient. His trilogy of large-scale compositions which opens with Mekhaye Ha-metim [Resurrection of the Dead] premiered in 1987 by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, is a prime example of this merging of cultures. Mekhaye Ha-metim is based on the musical tradition of East European Jews, whilst his work Sephardic Passion, premiered in 1992 also by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta with the participation of Placido Domingo, takes its inspiration from the musical tradition of Sephardic Jews. In 1995, his Psalms of Jerusalem opened the 3000th-anniversary celebrations of the founding of the City of Jerusalem.

Noam Sheriff was awarded the prestigious EMET Prize in 2003, the highest prize granted by the State of Israel for excellence in science and culture. In March 2011 he won the Israel Prize for music. The committee hailed him as an internationally recognized artist and performer who exerted a profound influence on musical culture in Israel.

The inaugural POLIN Music Festival featured his „Violin Concerto“ written for Festival‘s co-curator Michael Guttman. Noam Sheriff passed away on 25 August 2018.