This event will take place on Sunday, April 10, in the Hockett Family Recital Hall in the Whalen Center for Music on the Ithaca College campus. The concert begins at 7:45 pm and the pre-concert talk at 7 pm. Both events are free and open to the public.
Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas will present a musical treasury of individual and shared traditions among Jews and Muslims accompanied by Jeremy Brown, violin, and Jeremy Smith, percussion. Blending vocals, oud, violin, nay, and percussion, with songs in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, and Ladino, his performance traverses North African and Levantine song traditions. Drawing upon a rich intercultural mix of Hebraic and Islamic traditions, audiences feel the heartbeat of the Mediterranean.
Before the concert, Dr. Torjman Thomas will offer a talk that will discuss the interrelationship of Jewish and Muslim music, including a primer on understanding the musical languages of the region.
Ethnomusicologist and multi-instrumentalist Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas teaches ethnomusicology and Sephardic Jewish Studies at City University of New York, and is a faculty member for both the ALEPH and Academy of Jewish Religion Cantorial Programs. His scholarship centers on Sephardic thought and culture, musical cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, Jewish musical traditions, and jazz-based traditions. Dr. Tjorman Thomas is also Director of Musical Arts at Brooklyn's Sephardic Community Center.
Dr. Torjman Thomas is a multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, oud, nay), vocalist (Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish), and founder and artistic director of ASEFA and the New York Andalus Ensemble. His artistic work centers on performing music of North Africa, the Middle East, and Global Jazz. He is a frequent guest speaker, hazzan, and facilitator in ecumenical spaces, cultural institutions, and music and spiritual retreats worldwide. For more information about Dr. Thomas see asefamusic.com.
