This year’s Ud U’fiyyut (a co-production of the JMRC and the Confederation House in Jerusalem, in the framework of the International ‘Ud Festival Jerusalem, 2006) bears the title: Mi-qeddem U-miyyam: The Legacy of Asher Mizrahi

This concert is dedicated to the work of Asher Mizrahi – poet, musician, composer, artist and a teacher of Hebrew and music – who was born in Jerusalem in 1890, lived more than 40 years in Tunisia, and died in Jerusalem in 1967. Mizrahi wrote songs in Ladino, Hebrew Piyyutim of longing to Zion, as well as Arab-Tunisian songs, performed in the 1930' and 1940' by the most prominent musicians of his time, both Jews and Arabs.

The 'Ud Ufiyyut series, initiated by the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University, together with the Confederation House in Jerusalem as part of the International 'Us Festival, Jerusalem, is meant to bring closer the academia and the stage. This program portrays the work of a remarkable poet and musician, whose influence on the tradition of song and Piyyut, in Tunisia as in Jerusalem, cannot be overestimated.

Performers: Elad Gabai, qanun and musical direction; Moshe Luk, Hadas Pal-Yarden, vocals; David Menahem, vocals and nay; Yaniv Raba, ‘ud; Moshe Nuri, Percussions

The concert will take place in the Beit Shmuel, Jerusalem (6 Shama st.), on Sunday, November 12th, 2006, at 9pm.