Shema: What Jewish Culture Sounds Like, Denver, CO, Feb 15-20, 2008
The Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver presents,
SHEMA: WHAT JEWISH CULTURE SOUNDS LIKE
With Galeet Dardashti and Divahn for an exploration of
Middle Eastern and Sephardic Jewish music
Monday, February 18, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
University of Denver
Newman Center for Performing Arts, Spencer Room
2344 E. Iliff Ave. Denver, CO 80208
Free and open to the public but reservations are required Please call 303.871.3660.
Rimon:Master Classes in Judaic Studies with Galeet Dardashti
Performing Arab and Middle Eastern Music in Israel
Based on Galeet Dardashti's doctoral dissertation research in anthropology, these Master Classes chronicle the recent mainstreaming of Middle Eastern and Arab-influenced art music (musika etnit yisraelit) in the Israeli public sphere. Long-forgotten Iraqi septuagenarian musicians are only now asked to share their unique knowledge with receptive Israeli students and audiences; Palestinian and Jewish Israelis have formed a range of Middle Eastern and Arab-influenced bands; Israeli groups are performing interpretations of the music of Egyptian legends such as Oum Kalthoum and Farid El-Atrash for packed concert halls; and recently some of Israel's most noted secular rock singers have recorded their own renditions of Middle Eastern piyutim (Jewish praise songs). These developments over the past fifteen years represent an historical shift in Israeli cultural politics and indicate an openness to cultural diversity and a decline of the homogeneous Israeli national cultural identity that government policy had strongly encouraged since the State's inception. Through the music scene, Galeet examines this unique nationalist movement in Israel, examining how scholars can represent some of the complex cultural realities of this global era.
For further info: www.du.edu/cjs/public_programs.html
SHEMA: What Jewish Culture Sounds Like continues with our year-long project at the University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies which explores the orality of Jewish culture through media of music, sermons, poetry, theatre and languages of Jewish culture. Join us for a week of Middle Eastern and Sephardic Music with one of the most noted artists and scholars in this field – Galeet Dardashti and her all female band, Divahn!
Galeet Dardashti is completeing her PhD. in ethnomusicology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin. An Iraqi Jewish cantor, Galeet is a world-renowned musician of Middle Eastern music. She is the winner of several prestigious arts fellowships including the Six Points Jewish Arts Fellowship from the Foundation of Jewish Culture in New York. Dardashti's work examines the relationship between traditional Arabic muscial forms known as piyyutim and contemporary popular music in Israel, both Arab and Jewish. Her all female band, Divahn, has performed around the world and is the leading voice of Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jewish sounds. Visit their website and sample their music at www.divahn.com
Mizrahi Kabbalat Shabbat Service at Hillel
Join Galeet Dardashti in her role as a cantor for a dynamic Sephardi-Mizrahi Kabbalat Shabbat service which will have you singing and clapping! This special service involves prayers with beautiful melodies from a range of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities.
The Center for Judaic Studies brings you these and other programs with generous support from community members, departments and academic units at the University of Denver, the Posen Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, Hillel at the University of Denver and ISIME.