Voices of Our Mothers: A Middle Eastern Musical Midrash for Today, is an innovative exploration of culture, religion, politics, and gender through the lens of Middle Eastern music.
This project will create fresh and provocative compositions that draw inspiration from the musical and cultural landscapes of the Middle East, inhabited by some of the compelling yet under-appreciated Jewish and non-Jewish Biblical women and their descendants.
Galeet will compose songs, record an album, and engage others through performance and interaction with her works. Voices of Our Mothers. will draw from a variety of sources, weaving Midrashic, Talmudic and Biblical texts with poetry, family anecdotes, and current events.
The songs will be written in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Persian and Aramaic and involve collaborations with female singers of various Middle Eastern nationalities and faiths. Galeet’s project will also involve collaborations with DJs, combining traditional Middle Eastern sounds with electronic music.
This project will create fresh and provocative compositions that draw inspiration from the musical and cultural landscapes of the Middle East, inhabited by some of the compelling yet under-appreciated Jewish and non-Jewish Biblical women and their descendants.
Galeet will compose songs, record an album, and engage others through performance and interaction with her works. Voices of Our Mothers. will draw from a variety of sources, weaving Midrashic, Talmudic and Biblical texts with poetry, family anecdotes, and current events.
The songs will be written in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Persian and Aramaic and involve collaborations with female singers of various Middle Eastern nationalities and faiths. Galeet’s project will also involve collaborations with DJs, combining traditional Middle Eastern sounds with electronic music.
Galeet Dardashti pursues her passion for Jewish music as an accomplished singer and anthropologist. Following a long family tradition of distinguished Persian and Jewish musicianship, she is the founder and leader of the eclectic all-female Mizrahi/Sephardi ensemble Divahn.
Galeet has also performed as a soloist locally and internationally with numerous ensembles. As a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, Galeet is completing her dissertation on Middle Eastern and Arab music in Israel.
Her dissertation research in Israel was funded by fellowships from Fulbright-Hays, The National Foundation for Jewish Culture and The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, among others.
During her fieldwork, Galeet studied and performed Arab and Persian music with some of Israel's most renowned musicians, such as Yair Dalal. She offers artist/scholar-in-residencies, interactive musical workshops and academic lectures on her work—a solid scholarly background from which she can explore artistically in Voices of Our Mothers.
Galeet has also performed as a soloist locally and internationally with numerous ensembles. As a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, Galeet is completing her dissertation on Middle Eastern and Arab music in Israel.
Her dissertation research in Israel was funded by fellowships from Fulbright-Hays, The National Foundation for Jewish Culture and The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, among others.
During her fieldwork, Galeet studied and performed Arab and Persian music with some of Israel's most renowned musicians, such as Yair Dalal. She offers artist/scholar-in-residencies, interactive musical workshops and academic lectures on her work—a solid scholarly background from which she can explore artistically in Voices of Our Mothers.
Email Galeet at galeet@divahn.com or call 718.853.6934
