Sephardic Music Festival

Something that may be of interest is the upcoming Sephardic Music Festival in New York City, on December 20-27th. Here's some information about it, from their website:

The Sephardic Music Festival showcases the remarkable diversity that exists within the Jewish community. Its tapestry of harmonies, rhythms, and cultural motifs are as rich, vibrant, and diverse as the Jewish world itself. Popular perceptions of Jews and Jewish culture are dominated by Ashkenazi images and symbols like bagels, gefilte fish, klezmer, and Yiddish. This is the first music festival to focus exclusively on the less familiar but captivating culture of the Jewish communities of Spain/Portugal, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.  The festival showcases artists from all over the world, representing cultural traditions from Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) to Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African) to Yemenite (Judeo-Arabic). In addition to traditional liturgical music, Shabbat songs, Sephardic folk tunes, and classic love poems (Romanceros), the festival also presents artists who fuse traditional rhythms, melodies, and themes with modern styles such as electro, hip hop, and dance music. The Sephardic Scholar Series, an important part of the Festival, brings performers, ethnomusicologists, and experts together to illuminate the historical and sociological roots of Sephardic music and culture.  quotes:  “This Hanukkah fest wants to school us in Jewish music—and not just your grandpa’s klez.” - Time Out NY “Thanks to events like the Sephardic Music Festival, the sounds of Sephardic Jewry are at last beginning to get their due.” – The Forward  “For most New Yorkers, “Jewish music” means klezmer: plaintive fiddles, wailing clarinets and other vestiges of a largely vanished Eastern European culture. But at the Sephardic Music Festival, a New York City tradition…, the world of Jewish music gets explored from an entirely different angle, focusing on the aural legacy of Jewish communities from Spain and the Muslim world.” – JPost  “Our Hannukkah-side suggestion is the annual Sephardic Music Festival…look at this festival as the un-Ashkenazi festival.” - National Public Radio, WNYC

And here's a video promoting and fundraising for the festival:



Sephardic Music Festival Promo Clip from ShemspeedTV on Vimeo.




And the write up on the fundraising page goes like this:

Over the past 6 years we have produced the Sephardic Music Festival in NYC. The Festival highlights the remarkable diversity that exists within the Jewish community. Its tapestry of harmonies, rhythms, and cultural motifs are as rich, vibrant, and diverse as the Jewish world itself.. This is the first music festival to focus exclusively on the less familiar but captivating culture of the Jewish communities of Spain/Portugal, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.  The festival showcases artists from all over the world, representing cultural traditions from Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) to Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African) to Yemenite (Judeo-Arabic). In addition to traditional liturgical music, Shabbat songs, Sephardic folk tunes, and classic love poems (Romanceros), the festival also presents artists who fuse traditional rhythms, melodies, and themes with modern styles such as electro, hip-hop, and dance music. The Sephardic Scholar Series, an important part of the Festival, brings performers, ethnomusicologists, and experts together to illuminate the historical and sociological roots of Sephardic music and culture. The festival also produces Fashion, Art & Food events, all promoting and showcasing diversity.  Your money will help fund this year’s festival, which will take place in and around NYC from December 20th through the 27th.  We will produce an incredible diverse series of events including a Sephardic Story Slam night, a flamenco dance night, an Israeli & International Hip Hop night, a Kosher Taste Fest, a World music dance party alternative to the Matzo Ball on Xmas eve, a mega event with the Godfather of Israeli music (Miki Gavrielov). These are events that you will not see anywhere else and they are vital to the preservation and education of this rich culture. And here are some sights and sounds from previous years, representing some diverse musical tastes: And there's art and fashion too: And diversity! What a marvelous, exciting, and refreshing approach to Judaism! And so, in the Sephardic tongue of Ladino, let us remember: Boca dulce avre puertas de fierro (Kind words open iron gates)!