מורין נהדר

כותרת\הכרזה כלשהי שאפשר להחליף

כותרת\הכרזה כלשהי שאפשר להחליף

Maureen Nehedar

Maureen Nehedar is a vocal artist, composer and paytanit (singer of Jewish liturgical poems), a poetess and researcher of Jewish musical traditions in general and of the Judaeo-Persian tradition in particular. She is a pioneer of the world music scene in Israel and a world pioneer in the renewal of Jewish music. She has revived the Judaeo-Persian poetical and liturgical tradition, saving them from oblivion.

Maureen was born in Isfahan, Iran and immigrated to Israel as a baby with her family following the Islamic revolution and Khomeini’s rise to power. In her youth she joined the Ankor Children’s Choir (from age 10-18) where she appeared throughout the world in children’s and youth choir competitions. She was already recognized as a Wunderkind and noted for her impressive vocal abilities. She studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, completing her high school education there, and went on to complete two degrees at the Academy, in voice and composition, musical education and choir conducting as well as a teaching certificate.

Despite her training as a performing vocalist of European classics, at age 17 Nehedar joined the Isfahan Ensemble, performing Persian classical and folk music. Some years later Nehedar established her own ensemble and in addition to performing, in 2000 Maureen began conducting independent research, at her own expense, into the piyyut tradition of Iranian Jewry, thus saving numerous piyyutim from oblivion.

מורין נהדר

Nehedar is the only paytanit in the world performing traditional Judaeo-Persian songs and piyyutim. She has established the goal of preserving this rapidly disappearing tradition, composing her own melodies based upon the ancient Persian dastgah, the standard musical system in Persian art music, to piyyutim and other texts from Jewish sources. These melodies form part of her performances, together with Persian folk piyyutim in new arrangements adapted to modern ears, giving contemporary audiences the opportunity to appreciate their beauty.

Maureen has also set to music the works of Hebrew poets including Yehuda Amichai, Uri Zvi Greenberg, Amir Gilboa, Yehuda Halevy, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Haviva Pedaya, Leah Goldberg, Dahlia Ravikovitch, Zelda, Haim Gouri and others.

Maureen has performed at numerous festivals: The Israel Festival, The Piano Festival, The Mediterranea Festival, The Oud Festival, The Metula Poets’ Festival, The Piyyut Festival, and The Sounds of Music in the Desert Festival, to name but a few, as well as at Zappa’s halls and in sold-out performances throughout the year.

Nehedar has collaborated with numerous Israel artists, including Etti Ankri, Ehud Banai, Berry Sakharof, Rona Keynan, Shaanan Street, Daniela Spektor, Din Din Aviv, Yael Dekelbaum and Shlomo Bar. For the past 15 years Nehedar has performed in Israel and abroad with her ensemble, has appeared as guest performer with other ensembles, and with orchestras at world music, western classical music and contemporary music festivals. On several occasions she has performed  with the Israel Philharmonic, the Raanana Symphonette and the Israel Symphony Orchestra of Beersheva.

מורין נהדר
A Prayer for Peace
Nehedar belongs to the line of prestige artists of the BBC, which released a double disk of world music in 2012, on which she performs her own arrangement of a Persian folk lullaby. The piyyut: A Prayer for Peace, her own composition, was released in Europe in an international CD marking the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize.
Asleep in the Bosom of Childhood
In 2014 Maureen released the exemplary album of piyyutim titled Asleep in the Bosom of Childhood. The songs are based upon Maureen’s research in the field of Judaeo-Persian piyyut.
Talent Award
In 2014 Maureen received the Talent Award at the Amsterdam International Jewish Music Festival. That year her album: Asleep in the Bosom of Childhood reached third place in the Best Israeli Albums rating of the Ha’aretz newspaper.
Goleh Gandom
In 2016 Maureen released an album sung in Farsi, Goleh Gandom (Wheat Flower), devoted to Persian folk songs from the secular tradition of Iranian Jewry, in original new arrangements. The album enjoyed tremendous success in Israel and worldwide, receiving critical acclaim. The album’s theme song reached the playlist of Galgalatz and was even nominated for Song of the Decade.
iCast Archive Project
In 2017 Maureen participated in the iCast Archive Project, as reader of tens of piyyutim by the great paytanim of the Spanish Golden Age and by contemporary poets.
Why Do You Stand Afar
In 2018 her successful album of piyyutim: Why Do You Stand Afar, was released. It includes eleven prayers, piyyutim and mizmorim set to original melodies composed by Maureen, inspired by Arabic maqamat, Persian, Turkish, American folk and other sources. One of the album’s songs, Al mishkavi balaylot, even reached the playlist of the Israel Defense Forces radio station, Galgalatz.
Recognition and Prizes
In 2022 Maureen was recognized in Israel for her musical, cultural and piyyut activity by the Libi Bamizrah organization, and was recipient of a prize awarded by Neve Schechter and the Rabinowitz Foundation for Original Israeli Work in 2019. She has also been selected as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel. Maureen has released four albums that enjoyed great success and critical acclaim. This has placed her as one of the most talented and important vocalists and creators of Israeli music.
Toloue Man
In January 2023 Maureen released her fourth album, Toloue Man (My Dawn), an important and complex historical project paying tribute to Iranian pop and rock music. It offers a reflection of the rich and vibrant cultural world in Iran prior to the Islamic revolution, which silenced and exiled these artists.
Appreciation and Prizes
In 2023 Maureen Nehedar is Recipient of the 2023 Uri Orbach Prize for Jewish Music and Culture in Israel.

Albums

Asleep in the Bosom of Childhood (2014)

Goleh Gandom (2016)
 

Why Do You Stand Afar (2018)
 

Toloue Man (2023)
 

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