River folk music Wednesday’s “Between the Tigris and the Euphrates” concert at Ramat Gan Theater will offer an opportunity to enjoy some of the classics of Arab musical lore. The show will be fronted by vocalist Orna Peretz, who will perform a repertoire culled from folk music from right across the Arab world, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria.A mother of three, Peretz became a professional performer at a relatively late stage. She worked as a comptroller, but in 1999 she decided on a career change, studying acting and Arabic singing.Peretz, who lives in Ramat Gan, will be supported by the Mahdi Baghdadi ensemble of musicians playing Arabic instruments, and there will be a guest appearance by Lebanese-born vocalist Yasmin Lubnan. In addition to the musical entertainment there will be visual enhancement courtesy of dancers, including Dorit Arobas and her group, Ella Greenbaum, Iris Dalshad and Janette Nissim.For tickets and more information: (03) 578-2553/4 Shaping up for books There will be a book exhibition with a difference at the Succa – Green House nursery at Kfar Azar on June 23. The “Tzura Lasefer” (shape of books) show will feature all manner of unconventional tomes, including bathtub books floating on water, books on wheels, squeaking books and books of the sparkling variety. The exhibition opens at 11 a.m. and will be housed in the Ecological Photography Gallery, in a bus on the nursery grounds.The books come from a collection owned by photographer and multidisciplinary artist Mikie Einhorn Nickelbaum, who collected books with special shapes over the course of many years. The exhibition is very much a hands-on affair, and visitors will be able to leaf through the books while they recline on the lawn next to the gallery.In addition to the exhibition there will be a young illustrators’ workshop for children. The participants will learn how to produce illustrations for books, about the role of the illustration and where to get ideas from.Entry to the exhibition is free. The workshop costs NIS 30. For more information: (050) 527-4929 or [email protected] com Sunbeat returns The Sunbeat Festival will take place for the second year running, but at a different location from the inaugural event. This year’s festival will be hosted at a more expansive site at Alonim Farm near Kibbutz Alonim in the Jezreel Valley, with an impressive lineup of acts from all over the world. The festival will take place on three dates, with the first slot starting tomorrow at 3 p.m. and further installments in July and September.Tomorrow’s program includes musical frontier-crossing act Zap Mama from Belgium, which incorporates r&b, hip-hop and polyphonic music culled from Europe and Africa; Austrian vocal beatbox act Bauchklang, whose multi-genre stretch encompasses reggae, folk music, hip-hop, trance and drum’n’ bass; and Israeli singer-songwriter Karolina. The live stage slots will be augmented by the efforts of DJs Ori Bankhalter and Doni Kisluk.Elsewhere on the Sunbeat Festival program you can find dance shows, circus acts, visual art and street theater.For tickets and more information: (052) 778-2712, (055) 663-2290 or www.sunbeatfestival.com Gutman’s quest for colors A new biography about feted artist Nahum Gutman will be officially released on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art in Neveh Tzedek in Tel Aviv. The book, called Nahum Gutman – A Quest for Colors, was written by author-poet-lyricist Leah Naor and includes copies of Gutman’s paintings and illustrations as well as documents pertaining to important junctures in the celebrated artist’s life.The event will include a panel discussion about Gutman as well as performances of numbers from his children’s musical, In the Land of Lobengolo King of the Zulus, by singers from the Operas Fringe ensemble. Entry to the event is free. For more information: (03) 516-1970 or www.gutman museum.co.il
