Showtime

Impressive musical, cultural and artistic events occurring throughout Israel.

By BARRY DAVIS
Saxophone (photo credit: REUTERS)
Saxophone
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Love all round
Tel Aviv’s Enav Cultural Center will turn to romantically inclined musical matters this Thursday (8:30 p.m.) when it hosts the “Love Travels – From East to West” concert. The event brings together two stars of the international classical music arena, countertenor Yaniv d’Or and pianist and composer Dr. Orit Wolf, who will present a program of liturgical and love songs based on contemporary arrangements.
The two soloists will be accompanied by members of the all-star Ensemble Naya, including leading global world music oud player and violinist Yair Dalal, percussionist Erez Mounk, sitar player Yotam Haimovitch and viola da gamba player Amit Tiefenbrunn.
The concert will feed off an intriguing fusion between classical music and Jewish and Israeli material, with works that span the eastwest cultural divide. The repertoire for the evening will take in liturgical works from a wide range of ethnic sources, as well as contemporary compositions written by 20th-century Transylvania-born composer Alexander Uriah Boskovich, Wolf and Matti Caspi.
For tickets and more information: (03) 574-5005 and www.pashbar.co.il
Broken Beads
Earlier this week, the “Broken Beads” exhibition opened at the George Sharot Visitors’ Center at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba. The group show examines Moroccan cultural roots as expressed through the work of Israeli artists who made aliya, and by the next generation.
The exhibition, which was curated by Prof. Haim Maor of the university’s art department, together with students from his curator course, considers the legitimacy of Eastern art and exposes individual takes on what this entails. The works address various facets of Moroccan- Jewish culture and social issues, including a sense of nostalgia for the homes and community which the olim left behind, and look forward to the future and the formation of a new multilayered identity that feeds off cultural, ethnic and social sensibilities from Morocco, and from the ever-evolving Israeli cultural melting pot.
The exhibits include works by a wide array of artists, including Israel Prize laureate Pinchas Cohen Gan, father and daughter Michael and Neta Elkayam, and cross-genre painter Arik Vanunu, with highly tactile and visually arresting creations by Tal Shoshan.
Broken Beads closes on June 20.
For more information: (08) 646- 1600 and in.bgu.ac.il
Connecting with museums
On Monday we will be able to enjoy the contents of some 70 museums around the country without paying admission fees.
The gratis access is part of International Museum Day, which is taking place for the 38th year in succession and which was inaugurated by the International Council of Museums to raise awareness of the role museums play in the development of society.
The local program takes in establishments that focus on science, art, archeology, design, history and all manner of cultural aspects, and will include activities specially arranged to mark International Museum Day.
The Israeli institutions that will open their doors to the non-paying public cover an eclectic range of artistic and cultural endeavor, including the Science Museum in Jerusalem, the Design Museum in Holon, the Mané-Katz Museum of art in Haifa, the Israeli Cartoon Museum in Holon, the Janco Dada Museum at Ein Hod and the Clore Garden of Science of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
For more information about the museums and the activities in the program: (03) 956-5977 and www.icom.org.il
Porter by sax
An American saxophonist will offer his take on some evergreen jazz standards by Cole Porter in the forthcoming installment of this year’s Hot Jazz series, between May 26 to 31.
Grammy Award winner Vincent Herring is a highly prolific artist, having released 20 albums as leader and contributing to over 200 recordings as a sideman. Herring has enjoyed high-profile recording sessions and performances with the likes of iconic trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, veteran drummer Louis Hayes, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and now-85-year-old hard bop pioneer pianist Horace Silver.
Herring will be joined on the sixdate tour here by pianist Yonatan Riklis, bass player Max Vater and drummer Shai Zelman.
Concerts will take place at the Jerusalem Theater on May 26 at 9 p.m. (for tickets: (02) 560-5755 and 1-700-500-039); Zappa Herzliya Club on May 27, doors open at 8:15 p.m. and show starts at 10 p.m. (1- 700-500-039); Einan Hall in Modi’in on May 28 at 9 p.m. ((08) 973- 7333 and 1-700-500-039); Tel Aviv Museum on May 29 and May 30, at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. respectively ((03) 573-3001 and 1-700-500-039), and Beit Abba Khoushy in Haifa on May 31 at 9 p.m. ((04) 822-7850).