Sacred drummers and holy singers
The Jerusalem Season of Culture closes with the 2nd annual Sacred Music Festival, starting Tuesday. Among the artists: Ex-Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart; U2 friends Amadou & Mariam; golden-voiced Salif Keita, and exiled Tibetan monks Black Roots
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Sacred isn’t necessarily holy, said Itay Mautner, director of the Jerusalem Season of Culture. He was talking about the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival, the upcoming four-day musical celebration welcoming musicians from across continents, artistic disciplines and musical genres to the holy city.
Performing in some of the city’s most wondrous and unusual locations, including the Tower of David Museum, Zedekiah’s Cave, the Mount Scopus Ampitheatre and the YMCA, the musicians are a wide-ranging group of both well-known and more eclectic figures, such as Mickey Hart, the legendary and beloved ex-drummer of the Grateful Dead, Amadou & Mariam, a duo from Mali who just performed with Irish mega-band U2, Salif Keita, considered the golden voice of Africa, and Black Roots, a group of exiled Tibetan monks from India.
It’s the second year of the festival, which will close the nearly three-month-long Jerusalem Season of Culture, and will also include ‘Night Stroll’ across the grounds of the Tower of David Museum. One ticket offers entry from midnight on Thursday, August 22 to sunrise on Friday morning, August 23, with 20 different performances, ceremonies, singing circles, prayers, and workshops. Another tour is ‘Testimony Encounters,’ a selection of walks around town offering a glimpse of the rituals and ceremonies of Jerusalem’s diverse faiths.
“We wanted to understand what is sacred music and what is sacred music in Jerusalem and those are complicated questions,” said Mautner. “It’s not what is holy, it’s what is sacred, and we wanted to understand the differences. We’re not getting into liturgy and liturgical texts, and that means we can bring in a lot of things, like Tibetans next to Rastafarians and Hindu next Jewish liturgical poems.”
Last year’s festival was dedicated to the Middle Eastern world of sacred music, said Mautner, while this year they decided to expand it to the world at large.
“It’s like every search,” he said. “You have an idea and an ideology and then you figure out the implications and see what that will bring to bear.”
Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival, August 20-23, more information and tickets available at the Jerusalem Season of Culture website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKXyhDFlTxk&feature=share&list=PL55BFB9218CC09A37
