Yasmin Levy, a leading world music figure abroad, will be singing selections from her newest album Mano Suave - released this last October - at Jerusalem's Beit Avi Hai.
By HANNAH BROWN
Born in Jerusalem in 1975, Yasmin Levy, a leading world music figure abroad, was introduced to Ladino singing and culture from a very young age.
Ladino, the Sephardic Yiddish, is an archaic form of Spanish with structures and vocabulary that hark back to the 15th-century. Over the centuries, the language absorbed vocabulary from countries in which Iberian Jews settled.
Yitzhak Levy, Yasmin's father, was the leading figure in the world of research into and preservation of Judeo-Spanish culture.
Today she continues his work, presenting this music in live performances and discs, maintaining an active international touring schedule for five years straight now.
Ladino songs can be divided into romansas (ballads or dramatic narrative poems) and kantigas (lyric songs), the most popular of which are love songs.
Levy's repertoire, which can be traced back to medieval Spain, includes both these styles. She'll be singing selections from her newest album Mano Suave - released this last October - at Jerusalem's Beit Avi Hai (44 King George St.) at a live broadcast for BBC's Radio 3 station this Monday night, December 3 at 8:30 p.m.
For tickets call (02) 623-7000.