This article appeared in the Dec. 25, 2003 Jewish Advocate.

Machnai to bring Israeli sounds to First Night

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

Hebrew and Ladino will be a part of the First Night musical smorgasbord, as singer and composer Tami Machnai will present two concerts of Middle Eastern, Israeli and Jewish traditional and original folk music at the Boston Public Library’s Rabb Lecture Hall.

Sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel for New England, the program, to be presented at 7:30 and 8:45 p.m., will include familiar Middle Eastern and Sephardic music including “Morenica” and “Yad Anuga,” according to Machnai, a Jamaica Plain resident and native of Haifa, who began studying classical piano at its Dunia Weitzman Conservatory and continued at the Rimon School of Music in Tel-Aviv, Israel. “We will also perform contemporary Israeli songs in new interpretations, such as “Jerusalem Of Gold” by Naomi Shemer, and “Till you leave” by Rami Kleinstein,” she continued. Originals by Machnai, such as her new composition of “Yo Menamori d'un Aire,” “Mystery to Me,” and others will be in the mix as well. Performing with Machnai will be Ro'I Raz on guitar, Kelly Robergue on clarinet, Rutty Machnai on cello, Theodoulos Vakanas on violin, Garo Papazian on percussion, Ruslan Sirota on piano and Shimon Ben-Shir on bass.

The Consulate General has been sponsoring a First Night performance every year for several years.

Machnai came to Boston in 1994, following her Israeli army service and musical schooling, to attend Berklee College of Music, where she received a bachelor’s degree in music in 1997. At Berklee, she studied varied musical styles, including improvisational music and jazz. She recently went on to earn a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory, where she concentrated on composing and arranging, along with performance.

Often compared to Israeli singer Ester Ofarim, she has performed her wide range of pop, jazz, R&B, reggae and Jewish and Israeli music in Japan, Venezuela, Switzerland and Israel. Her artistic collaborations have included the Yaniv Granot Dance Ensemble at the Suzanne Dalal Center for Dance and Theater and the “Jazz O’mania” Music Festival in Israel. She sang in a Chanoh Levin play at the Nisan Nativ Acting Studio in Tel Aviv, and was featured on the Dori Ben Ze’ev and the Rivka Michaeli Show on Israeli television. A soloist with the Arnon Palti Jazz Quartet for a Sony television commercial, she performed with cantor Aryeh Finklestein, cantor Charles Osborne, and singer Catherine Thorpe in the May, 2002 Rosenshine-Bernstein memorial concert in Boston. “She sang magnificently,” said Finklestein, explaining that the event, which he produces, has been Mishkan Tefilah’s annual spring concert for the past three years. “It memorializes a wonderful gentleman and lady, brother and sister Esther Bernstein and Joseph Rosenshine, who were great supporters of the Arts, and especially of Jewish Music, during their lifetime,” he explained. “Tami and her band performed many of her exciting new Sephardic compositions, and she was a big hit with the audience,” he recalled.

Machnai has also appeared in three CDs of reggae singer Casper John and on his Caribbean tour. Locally, she has performed at Ryles in Cambridge, the Berklee Performance Center, Boston Public Library, the French Library, and area synagogues. She is also a singer and actress with the MVP (Music Values Project) band, an interactive concert-clinic program for elementary and middle Schools. Finally, Machnai leads “Moadon Tsavta Boston,” a monthly Israeli music evening with Raz and Sirota at Ryles.

“Tami Machnai is a performer of extraordinary creativity, vocal talent and passion, a consummate artist of great emotional depth,” said Klezmer Conservatory Band founder and director Hankus Netsky, who also teaches at the New England Conservatory. “Her work has a special spark that always moves her audience in ways they don't expect.” The two collaborated for three years in a Jewish music ensemble. Currently, Machnai is working on a CD of Sephardic Arabesque music.

“I am very thankful to the Israeli Consulate and especially to the cultural affairs officer Yitzchak Kramer, who believes in me and who's always very supportive,” she said. “I have been working with the consulate for the past five or six years, and I am always very proud to represent Israel.”

The Tami Machnai Ensemble will perform at 7:30 and 8:45 p.m. at the Boston Public Library’s Rabb Lecture Hall on Wednesday, Dec. 31. For information, visit the world music section at www.ashmontmedia.com/firstnight or call the Cultural Affairs office at the Consulate General of Israel to New England office at 617-535-0217.