Esti Kenan Ofri in the US

[Francesco Spagnolo <yuval...>]

Dear everyone,

what follows is meant to let you know that the Israeli artist Esti Kenan
Ofri will be giving a concert in the US this may. A concert of hers, in duo
with percussionist Oren Freed (the duo's name is "Duo Kol-tof"), is
scheduled in Los Angeles, at UCLA, on Sunday, May 9. I do not know the
details yet.

I had the chance to meet Esti Kenan Ofri in Italy two years ago. In my
(professional) opinion, she is one of the most talented artists in the
field of Jewish music toady. A dancer and a choreographer, she started
singing several years ago without receiving any formal vocal training.

Her voice has inspired Italian composer Luciano Berio's work "Ofanim", a
"cantata" for solo voice, children's choir and orchestra written on a
Hebrew (biblical) text. The libretto was written by Berio's wife, Israeli
musicologist Talia Pecker. The work was last performed by Esti and
conducted by the author on April 11, 1997 in Turin, Italy, to commemorate
the decennial of Primo Levi's death.

Of course, Berio's works (there is a new "Hebrew" composition of his that
has been announced) should be the topic of a different posting.

Esti Kenan Ofri has been working for many years now on the Sephardic
reperoire, singing in Ladino, Hebrew and Arabic, bringing this music to a
new degree of consciousness. She has had the chance to work with Ladino
traditional performers such as Dora Gerassi and Bienvenida Aguado (see the
INEDIT cd on Ladino songs edited by Israeli musicologist Edwin Seroussi),
and to learn Arabic music from Iraqi-Israeli musician Selim In Nur (the
oldest and most renown 'ud player and composer from Iraq to settle in
Israel in the 50's). At the same time, she has been collaborating with such
Israeli composers as Andre' Hajdu and Betty Olivero. She has also been
exploring the field of improvisation together with the Russian Israeli
jazzman Slava Ganelin.

As I write these notes, I realize that I learned all this directly from
Esti, since she never put together any kind of materials like musicians
usually do to inform organizers and record labels about their work. She did
put out a CD (El juego de siempre, by Bet Hatefutsot in Tel Aviv) some
years ago, but I am not sure that many people really heard it.

Her music (and dance, since she sometimes dances during concerts) is a
quite delicate mixture of tradition brought back to its roots and more
"contemporary" ideas. It has nothing to do with "Ladino songs" as we are
used to listen to them: neither on the "philological" side of the beautiful
(and, for me at least, very instructive) music of the Canadian based group
Gerineldo, nor on the more common side of the hispanic-flavoured
arrangements that dominate this repertoire. Instead, it is made of
traditional songs and poetry and vocal improvisation on Arabic and Turkish
makamat. But the sensibility it implies is based upon the instinct of
creating new (jewish?) music (in a quite similar way to that enacted in the
klezmer field by Brave Old World's last two cd's).

What I mean to say -- and I apoligize for the long posting -- is that this
music naturally stresses its own *musical* power much more that its
"jewishness" (which is somehow already implied in it). As you may assume, I
am fascinated by it, and at the same time I would be interested in knowing
what others (Joel? Judith?) think about this.

During the last few years, Esti has been only on rare (although sometimes
very important) occasions (she is the mother of three very young children,
and lives in Jerusalem), both in Israel and abroad. I believe that
Kol-tof's unique concert date in Los Angeles is a great opportunity for
people interested in Jewish music to know more about it, and to listen to a
wonderful concert.
At the same time, I am wondering about how to promote their music some more
(this is not really my job -- I'm asking for suggestions, or help, here!),
and maybe find a way to book some other dates for them.
If anybody is interested, I believe that Esti Kenan Ofri and Oren Freed can
be contacted direcly in Jerusalem (I have their addresses and phone nos).

kol tuv,
Francesco

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                             YUVAL ITALIA
                Centro di Studi sulla Musica Ebraica
           The Italian Center for the Study of Jewish Music

                    dr. Francesco Spagnolo, Director

via della Guastalla,19   20122 Milano Italy   tel/fax +39 02 55014977
mailto:yuval (at) powerlink(dot)it               http://www.powerlink.it/yuval
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