Israel is located in the Middle East, bordering the Gaza Strip, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Israeli Music
Arabic Music in Israel
In the 1950s, large numbers of Iraqi Jews emigrated to Israel. Among them were highly acclaimed musicians. The classical Arabic sound these musicians brought with them was rejected by the European-American trend dominant in Israel at the time.
Salim Al’Nur (born in Baghdad in 1920) emigrated to Israel in 1950 and made a living as an engineer, a profession he had learned in Lebanon and Turkey. He continued composing and playing, but only for close friends and circles or Iraqi immigrants longing for the music of their former homeland. An entire musical tradition would have been lost if the IBA (Israel Broadcasting Authority) Arabic Orchestra had not been established.
Ezra Aharon, Zuzu Musa, Daoud Akram and their friends faithfully preserved the tradition of classical Arabic music. More than that, they recorded many original compositions by former Iraqi musicians who were now Israelis. While this was true for the years leading up to and including the seventies, Israel today is a multicultural society, aware of its geographic location in the Middle East. (source: Schlomo Israeli)
Sephardic music comprises the songs, primarily ballads, romances (Hispanic narrative ballads) and wedding song lyrics, preserved by communities formed by the Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 15th century. Most of the Spanish Jews moved to Mediterranean countries, primarily Morocco, Greece, Turkey. These Sephardic communities share many of the same lyrics and poems, but the music itself varies considerably. Leading Israeli performers of Sephardic music include Yasmin Levy and Mor Karbasi.
Israeli Musicians
Alaev family
Amos Hoffman
AndraLaMoussia
Bustan Abraham
Chava Alberstein
David Broza
Emil Zrihan
Essev Bar
Filfel Gourgy
Habrera Hativit
Kol – Tof Duo
Lior Elmaleh
Lubna Salame
Muhammad Abu Ajaj
Noa
Ofra Haza
Ori Kaplan
Sameer Makhoul
Sara Alexander
Smadar Levi
Vira Lozinsky
Yair Dalal
Yasmin Levy
Yuval Ron
Zohar Fresco
