The Ethiopian Festival was made possible by the Jerusalem Development Authority, which makes available up to $200,000 for high-level events that are not already sponsored by the Culture Ministry.
By PEGGY CIDORThe Oud Festival is presenting, on the same stage, Ethiopia’s top three singers: (from left) Aster Aweke, Gossaye Tesfaye and Mahmoud Ahmed(photo credit: CONFEDERATION HOUSE)
What does an artistic director of a festival do after a successful closing concert? Take a long nap? Pack and fly to some exotic tropical locale? Take – finally – the time to answer the mountains of mail, calls and messages he couldn’t get to before and during the festival? He would probably do all of these and more – but not Effie Benaya, the artistic director of the Oud Festival. Just a few hours after the three Greek Divas closed this year’s festival, he immediately moved on – to the next festival, of course.“I have to switch in my mind from the outgoing to the incoming,” explains Benaya from his office at the Confederation House, overlooking the walls of the Old City. “The Oud Festival has become a ‘must’ for all aficionados of great classical oriental and Mediterranean music. I look forward to the challenge of the totally different type and conditions of the next festival – the exciting Ethiopian music and theater gathering we are planning.”Benaya is aiming high in the coming festival, bringing onto the same stage the three greatest idols of music in Ethiopia, two of them for the first time on an Israeli stage. Ethiopian music will bask in the spotlight in a major Jerusalem venue – at the International Convention Center.Since its inception 18 years ago, the Oud Festival has entranced audiences, bringing together international and local musicians and singers sharing their love and knowledge of classical oriental music. Considering political (BDS, etc.) and financial aspects (costly to bring some of the hottest names in the field to Jerusalem), plus the hurdle of presenting a culture that is too often identified with our (not always friendly) neighbors – this festival is a bold concept.Several high points in this year’s high-level and varied program have attracted exceptional attention. “Men Cry at Night” brought together two seemingly dissimilar Israeli performers: Avner Gadassi, better known for his interpretations of Yemenite-inspired pop music and Chemi Rudner, a rock singer and musician. Two worlds, two traditions, two very different audiences. Benaya daringly brought them together for an evening that turned out to be a major success, in a one-time Mediterranean rock-and-roll performance. Gadassi, an innovative performer in “Mediterranean music” found a shared musical language with one of the princes of the Israeli rock scene. What emerged was a real and emotive evening of soul music – an attempt that only this festival could conceive of and execute – to the delight of the packed hall.Next on stage was American-Armenian oud player Ara Dinkjian, a frequent guest at the Oud Festival. Dinkjian’s trio is a living example of how music can dissolve barriers; he performs with Turkish qanun player Tamer Pinarbasi and lyra player Greek Sokratis Sinopoulos – enemies elsewhere, perhaps, but soulful partners on a Jerusalem stage. The three played demanding pieces requiring full musical coordination and an ability to listen to each other before and during the performance. The result was enthusiastically applauded by the packed hall at the Jerusalem Theater.As usual in this festival, the great singers of classical Arab music of Egypt were honored. The music of Abdul Wahab (king of the Arab singers) and Abd al-Halim Hafaz was performed by a local nightingale steeped in the same tradition – Ziv Yehezkel, an Israeli haredi singer who plays the oud and sings in classical Arabic.Closing the festival, the Sherover Theater hosted three of the top female singers of Greece – Dimitra Galani, Eleni Tsaligopoulou and Yota Nega, who set the stage on fire for more than three hours, including traditional Greek music and arrangements in their mix.The last notes of the Oud Festival had barely faded when Benaya and the Confederation House directed their energies to the next big event – the “Trio of Giants of Ethiopia in a Unique Gathering in Jerusalem,” with singers Mahmoud Ahmed, Aster Aweke and Gossaye Tesfaye – among the genre’s greats here on a major stage. For Benaya, it is the expression of his credo – promoting the music of the world, with a special emphasis on the little-known music of one of Israel’s communities.The evening will open with Shlomo Gronich, Ester Rada, Abatte Barihun and the Sheba Choir, with “Mewahad” (“Together”) – emphasizing the similarity between these words in Hebrew and Amharic, as a symbol of togetherness and solidarity. Barhun, a celebrated saxophonist and singer both in Israel and in Ethiopia, will present his compositions on longing and love for Jerusalem – Yeruselem in Amharic. The piece is a collaborative work with professor and poet Haviva Pedaya, who has been promoting Ethiopian tradition and music for years. The songs are performed as a tribute to the members of Israel’s Ethiopian community and its cultural heritage.One of the three participants in the evening’s main performance is Mahmoud Ahmed, on his second visit to Israel. He has been one of the best-loved vocal artists in Ethiopia and abroad since he began to appear in the early 1970s. Aster Aweke, who has also appeared in Israel previously, is known as “the Ethiopian Aretha Franklin” and is regarded as the greatest living Ethiopian female vocalist. Aweke, many of whose songs have become unofficial anthems, has performed for audiences in Ethiopia and abroad since the late 1970s. Joining these two artists is the young Gossaye Tesfaye, who represents the new generation of Ethiopian vocalists. Tesfaye, who rose to prominence after the fall of the military junta in Ethiopia in the 1990s, recorded one of his best-known songs, “Adera,” with Mahmoud Ahmed and has performed with him around the world.The Ethiopian Festival was made possible by the Jerusalem Development Authority, which makes available up to $200,000 for high-level events that are not already sponsored by the Culture Ministry. Benaya applied the special grant toward this unprecedented festival, whose costs were also covered by private donations.“Subsidized buses will bring Ethiopian Israelis from across the country; tickets are sold across the country through convenient community centers and thus we can taken this very special event to the largest hall in Jerusalem – more than 3,000 seats – and I am sure it will be full,” says Benaya with visible emotion.For more information: www.confederationhouse.org/en/#
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