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Classical music gets eastern spice

Israel is embracing sounds from the Arab world.

April 17, 2018 15:50
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4 min read

Classical music in Israel is undergoing a sea change, as it shifts from traditional European roots towards more Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences.


The ultimate testament to this change is the fact that the Andalusian Orchestra of Ashdod, which performs North African music, today has the status of an official orchestra of Israel. That puts it on a par with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.


The odds have long been stacked against non-Western musicians, according to Avi Shoshani, founder and director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Classical Music. “Those running public radio here, as well as the leading impresarios, were invariably Ashkenazi or people brought up in the Western tradition,” he says. “They could not conceive of a classical music that was not Western and European.  


“That Arabic and ethnic Jewish music has its own classical canon was beyond them, if not intellectually, then emotionally. But in point of fact, the Eastern classical tradition precedes the Western tradition by several centuries.”