A unique collaboration between the Oud Festival, Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, and the Center for Music from the East brings the soundtrack of the Barashe community – a synagogue established by the former residents of the village of Barashe in Kurdistan in the Nahlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem – to the forefront for the first time. A joint ensemble of teachers and students, musicians and singers, along with members of the Barashe community, will perform new arrangements of piyyutim (religious poems) that have been preserved from generation to generation by three ancient Kurdish-Jerusalemite families: Barashi, Yehoshua, and Barzani. The performance was born out of the “Golden Chain” project, which promotes original creative processes stemming from a deep encounter between art students and ancient communities and traditions in Israel.
On stage will be an orchestra of teachers and students from the Center for Middle Eastern Music and a choir of piyyutim singers from both the Center for Music and members of the Barashe Congregation.
Paytan Soloists Yaniv Ovadia (vocals and saz) Drori Yehoshua, Moti Gabbay
Vocals: Michael Barazani, Avi Kalfon, Zecharia Kozlov, Avigail Dror, Noa Kamari | Musicians: Zion Badi violin, Jonathan Cohen Kanun, Shlomo Ilan Kenan guitar, Tomer Nir oud,
Tal Zvi Rosenbaum oud, Tom Meshulani percussion, Ortal Gasso cello, Hillel Liebson kamancheh, Ron (Spatz) Cohen bansuri flute | Arrangements Hillel Liebson, Yonatan Cohen, Tal Rosenbaum, Avi Kalfon, and Zechariah Kozlov | Musical direction by the center’s teachers, Ilan Kenan, Ron (Spatz) Cohen, and Zion Badi | Artistic direction Elad Gabbay, the Center for Middle Eastern Music, and Yair Harel, Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
Project “Golden Chain” is an initiative of Yad Ben-Zvi and is supported by the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions and the Directorate for Jewish Identity.
The Golden Chain – Photo: Hanani Horovitz
2025 International Oud Festival
6–13 November, 2025
