Upper Galilee remembers its own at music festival

Israeli orchestras, musicians and singers will bring their creative, healing spirit to Israel’s war-torn north, south and center in late October, in two separate music festivals.

The Voice of Music Festival, one of Israel’s oldest chamber music festivals, will celebrate its 41st season with four days of live music, October 29 through November 1, in the Upper Galilee.

While Israel’s northern region was under fire from Hezbollah, the festival was relocated to Tel Aviv in 2024, and returned to its home base in Kibbutz Kfar Blum last year.

This is the first year since early 2023 that it is returning to its full schedule.

One of the concerts, “My River,” with music inspired by water and nature, will be in memory of Ofer ‘Poshko’ Moskovitz, the festival’s photographer and an integral personality of the region, who was killed by friendly fire on March 22 at his home in Kibbutz Misgav Am.

The work “Silent Playground” by Druze composer Haya Mustafa will be performed by the Rosmarin Ensemble in memory of the 12 children killed by a July 2024 rocket strike on the Majdal Sham’s soccer pitch.

“When I build the festival program, I feel a threefold responsibility: to the audience, to the musicians, and to that abstract entity we call music,” said the festival’s artistic director, Ofra Yitzhaki.

This year, the festival, held at the renovated Pastoral Hotel in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, will renew several longtime traditions, including late-night musical sessions and open rehearsals.

The opening concert will feature pianist Shlomi Shaban in a solo show.

Singer Nurit Galron will perform arrangements of five select songs from her repertoire with her band, and the festival will premiere new works by guitarist and composer Naama Pearl-Tzadok and oud player and composer Onn Yosef Kadosh.

A Shabbat concert will feature Psalms and liturgical poems performed at Domus Galilaeae, the House of Galilee, a Christian meeting place located on the peak of Mount of Beatitudes, overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

Tickets and more information are available on the Kol Hamusica site. Paid shuttle transportation from Tel Aviv and Haifa will be available to guests purchasing festival packages.

Separately, The Hatikvah Project, initiated by the Azrieli Foundation, will bring together 13 Israeli orchestras from October 21-28, with 11 concerts in nine locations, marking the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

Concerts will be held in Ra’anana, Karmiel, Tel Aviv, Be’ersheba, Jerusalem, Kibbutz Dorot, Haifa, Ashdod and Ness Ziona, with the national concert series aiming to highlight the power of sacred Jewish music for communities across Israel.

“As from its very beginning, the Hatikvah Project is being carried out in response to an enduring, deep need for comfort and mental healing among the people of Israel and throughout the Jewish Diaspora,” said soprano singer and cantor Sharon Azrieli, who directs the Azrieli Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the family-held real estate holding company.

Now in its third year, having been established in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack, the Hatikvah Project concerts bring works from the Western classical repertoire as well as Jewish Baroque music, contemporary Israeli compositions, Andalusian music and liturgical prayers from North Africa and Spain.

This year’s performers include Israeli Philharmonic conductor Lahav Shani, cellist Mischa Maisky, singers Arik Sinai, Aya Korem, Amir Benayoun and Leah Shabat, actor Ben Peri and pianist Guy Mintus.

Tickets to each concert cost NIS 36 and can be purchased online.