Voices That Wander

Voices That Wander is a choral project which explores traditional songs in Ladino, the language of Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews who fled the inquisitions. We will perform new arrangements of traditional Ladino songs by Sally Davies, and brand new choral compositions by composer Lydia Samuels. Joining the choir are guest soloists Ana Silvera, Miriam Gould, David Ridley and Rosalie Warner.

This concert revisits music performed at our SOLD OUT July concert in Clapton Round Chapel in which we juxtaposed Jewish and Palestinian music. This evening will focus on Sephardi music and culture and how it intersects with music from Morocco to Bosnia as well as the history of Ladino-speaking Jews.

Vanessa Paloma Elbaz, a Moroccan Jewish singer, scholar and expert in the music of the diasporic regions of 1492’s expulsion, will be sharing her knowledge of Ladino women’s songs through a dynamic fusion of music, visuals, and storytelling.

Singer and composer Ana Silvera, who fuses the traditional music of her own lineage with a contemporary sound, will share Ladino traditional songs in a solo performance.

We will also be joined by oral historian Dr Bea Lewkowicz, director of Sephardi Voices UK, who will be in conversation with Lebanese born visual artist Leslie Hakim-Dowek.