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The international Asian Music Festival will take place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheba and Jaffa this week.

By BARRY DAVIS
International Asian Music Festival (photo credit: Reuters)
International Asian Music Festival
(photo credit: Reuters)
Form and content
A new work by choreographer Tamar Borer will be performed at the Klipa Theater in Tel Aviv on October 17-20. The name of the piece is Bohu, which is derived from and the biblical Hebrew phrase “tohu vavohu” – formless and empty. Borer, who is responsible for the direction, costume design and stage design of Bohu, uses the work to explore concepts of the abstract and the tangible, cosmic and existential, and desolation and emptiness.
The movement language of Bohu stems from focusing on the performers’ inner experience. The work also includes video art, provided by Tamar Lam, and music written by Uri Frost. The props feature an iron ladder, sculpted by Japanese metal artist Nobuya Yamaguchi, and a stainless steel plate on the floor that serves as a projection screen for the video images. The images include shots of a pool of water that goes through various transformations of light, and a field of poppies dancing in the wind. Other accessories include crumpled metal black wrap of various sizes and shapes, around and through which the dancers move.
For tickets and more information: (03) 687-9219
Exploring boundaries
When Liat Dror and Nir Ben-Gal released Two-Room Apartment in 1987, the dancer couple achieved immediate success and cemented their place at the forefront of Israeli modern dance. Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Leor will present their new reading of the work on October 19 and 20 as part of the Tmuna Festival at Tel Aviv’s Tmuna Theater (October 16-25).
Two-Room Apartment examines relationships between couples and life as a framework in which habits and practices are repeated in almost compulsive precision. The piece looks at physical borders, such as between countries or rooms in an apartment, and at conceptual delineations such as the boundaries between partners in relationships, the limitations of a person’s capabilities and the boundaries a person sets for himself.
The performance of the Dror and Ben-Gal work is a co-production of the Tmuna Theater, Centre National de la Danse of Paris, and the Grand Theatre of Holland.
The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble salutes local composer
The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble will kick off its new season on October 18 with a program that includes works by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Haydn, as well as The People Walking in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light, written by Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun.
Braun’s piece, which he wrote to mark his 90th birthday, features soprano Keren Hadar and French horn player Alon Reuven.
Ensemble musical director Barak Tal will conduct. The 30-piece instrumental ensemble’s opening concert also features the Collegium Singers.
Braun’s composition includes texts taken from various parts of the Book of Isaiah, particularly a verse from Chapter 9, from which the name of the work is taken: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
The ensemble’s coming season will contain a number of innovations, such as the inclusion of video images that will further expound the nature of the music being performed.
The opening concert will be performed at the Rappaport Auditorium in Haifa on October 18, followed by further concerts at the Israeli Music Conservatory Auditorium in Tel Aviv (October 21), the Weil Cultural Center in Kfar Shmaryahu (October 22) and the YMCA in Jerusalem (November 11).
For more information: www.soloists.co.il
Music from Asia
Contemporary music from Asia will be front and center at the international Asian Music Festival that will take place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheba and Jaffa between October 14 and 20. The event also incorporates an international conference, with the participation of composers from South Korea, China, Cambodia, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and Israel.
The musical program includes performances by chamber ensembles and full orchestras. The opening slot features the Israel Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Guy Feder, with works by Israeli composers Ari Ben-Shabtai and Yosef Bardanashvili, and by composers from Australia and Korea. The Tel Aviv Museum will host a performance of Mediterranean music by oud player and violinist Taiseer Elias and percussionist Zohar Fresco. The chamber music program includes works written by Asian composers, performed by pianist Ofra Yitzhaki and violinist Yael Barolsky. There will also be a performance of Asian works by the Israel Contemporary Players ensemble.
Concerts will also take place at the Jerusalem Theater, the Felicja Blumental Center in Tel Aviv, Hateiva in Jaffa and Heichal Hatarbut in Beersheba.