Biography
BIOGRAPHY / WEBSITES / YOUTUBE VIDEO LINKS
The Ladino singer was born Yasmin Levy in Bakaa, Jerusalem, Israel, on 23 December 1975. A “very small, beautiful neighbourhood”, Bakaa is filled with narrow alleyways and warrens dating back many hundreds of years. The area is still a vital part of the history of this great city and, for Yasmin, her roots. Whenever she has time off, she loves to return to Jerusalem and spend time with her mother, brothers, sister and their families.
Yasmin’s musical interests began as a child. At six years of age, she was taught to play piano and she continued with her studies until age eighteen. At twenty, she began singing seriously but it wasn’t until a year later that she made her first public performance as a guest in a concert given by her mother. Other local concerts followed but it wasn’t until WOMEX 2002 that she made her international début and embarked on a singing career.
Her first album Romance And Yasmin focused on Ladino music and Turkish influences and was greatly influenced by the work of her late father Yitzhak Levy. Born in Turkey in 1919, he worked as both a composer and cantor. After the creation of the State of Israel, Yitzhak was appointed head of the Ladino department at Israel's national radio station. His life's work was devoted to the collection and preservation of the songs of Sephardic Jews: these songs had been passed down orally from generation to generation over a period in excess of 500 years. During his lifetime he published 4 books containing Sephardic romances and another 10 volumes of liturgical songs. He also recorded many of these same songs for the national radio. Sadly, Yitzhak Levy passed away when Yasmin was little over one year old. Nevertheless she grew up knowing her father's love for this music and his heritage as he had also taught her mother Kochava the Sephardic repertoire and she, in turn, passed the songs on to their daughter. When Yasmin was preparing her first disc Romance And Yasmin, she was she says “helped enormously by the books and recordings my father left behind”.
For her second album, the highly acclaimed La Juderia, Yasmin continued her work with the Ladino tradition but began to experiment more with the flamenco influences that date back to her residence in Spain during 2002. In that year, she was awarded a scholarship by the Christina Herren Foundation to study flamenco in Seville. There she was influenced strongly by the unique singing style that she then added to her own Sephardic one.
Her much-anticipated third album Mano Suave (World Village/Harmonia Mundi) was released in October 2007 and marked a mature return to her Ladino roots. Recorded in London's Livingston Studios in February 2007, it has Lucy Duran and Jerry Boys co-producing. Continuing Yasmin’s tradition of using the best musicians available, this latest album features players from Iran, Armenia, Greece, Paraguay, Israel, Turkey and Spain. Mano Suave also features a very moving duet with guest vocalist Natacha Atlas on the title track, which is a Beduin song in which Natacha’s Arabic interweaves stunningly with Yasmin’s Spanish vocals.
Yasmin’s deep, spiritual singing, passionate vocal delivery and striking good looks continue to entrance fans new and old. She has thrice been nominated for BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards and her appearance on BBC 2 TV’s Later…With Jools in November 2005 was one of the highlights of that particular series. More recently she has appeared on Holland’s acclaimed Vrije Geluiden television programme as well as featuring on television and radio in countries as diverse as Australia, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Spain, Austria, and on the popular Turkish television programme Ibo Show in July 2008. In January of this year she was featured in France’s Concert FIP, a prestigious live radio series devoted to exposing the talents of artists from all over the World.
Yasmin’s touring activities have already taken her to many parts of the Globe. In 2008 she played her first national tour of Australia culminating in a sold-out performance at the prestigious Sydney Opera House on March 1. She has also played national tours of England, Sweden, and Germany, together with shows in Austria, Switzerland and Finland earlier this year. She will be playing national tours of Poland, Holland, Germany (again) and France as well as dates in Bulgaria and Montenegro this Autumn. In January Yasmin sold out Israel’s National Opera House in Tel Aviv. She has appeared at WOMEX Festivals in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, UK and Canary Islands as well as at New York’s Carnegie Hall amongst many others. Next year, 2009, will see
Yasmin Levy making her debut National Tour of the United States with concerts planned in November.
In October 2008, Yasmin was nominated for Holland’s prestigious Edison Award, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammys, in the category Best World Music Album. This nomination confirms the very positive acceptance of her latest release in Holland at both a critical and commercial level with the album having charted earlier this year in the Top 30 of the main retail charts. Mano Suave also charted in the Top 10 of Sweden’s mainstream pop music charts and has performed extremely well across Europe as well as in Australia and Israel.
In September 2008, Yasmin was named Goodwill Ambassador for Children of Peace, a UK-based charity fighting to alleviate the plight of all children caught up in the decades-old Middle East crisis. As part of this role, Yasmin has committed to giving at least two workshops a year to Middle Eastern children from all sides of the conflict, talking about her career and trying to imbue these children with the hope that through music they may still live their dreams.
In March 2006, Yasmin was presented with the Anna Lindh Award for promoting cross-cultural dialogue, for her work with musicians covering three cultures and her connection with the history of Spain.
The award reflects many of her hopes for the future. On a musical level, these have been distilled into the music and songs on Mano Suave. On a more global scale, she desires “that people will have more compassion towards each other and learn to live in harmony”.
www.yasminlevy.net
www.myspace.com/yasminlevy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kFhqS1yMuI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rmK99BZsKo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o55EljQWv14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kFhqS1yMuI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rmK99BZsKo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcmgPHjXc5o
Instrumentation
Yasmin Levy - vocals
Ishay Amir - Darbuka
Yechiel Hasson - Guitar
Vardan Hovanissian - flute & clarinet
Miles Danso - double bass
Discography
Romance And Yasmin (Connecting Cultures)
La Juderia (Connecting Cultures)
Mano Suave (World Village/Harmonia Mundi)
Links
| http://www.yasminlevy.net |