The Musicians of "Reach Out"

Ittai Binnun (baglama player)
Shrine of the Book, Jerusalem

Ittai Binnun is the founder and leader of AndraLaMoussia, an innovative world fusion ensemble that has performed throughout Israel and Europe. In addition to playing the baglama, Ittai plays Western and Eastern wind instruments including the clarinet, saxophone, ney, zurna, duduk, and didgeridoo. In the music he writes, and in his arrangements of traditional melodies, Ittai combines Western and Eastern influences to create contemporary Jewish Israeli music.

Ittai also writes music for the theater and movies. He is a creator and the music director of the acclaimed theatrical work Mishte. It portrays the story of Saul and David while observing biblical events from a critical contemporary view.

Since 2000, Ittai has been a member of the Arabic-Jewish Josef and One ensemble, which specializes in world music and in combining the musical traditions of different cultures.

Gilad Dobrecky (percussion)
Jaffa Beach

Israeli-born percussionist and composer Gilad Dobrecky began performing professionally at the age of 7. His musical upbringing started with classical music, eventually leading to a performance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Gilad's performance and compositional styles draw on a diverse range of musical traditions, including Middle Eastern, North African, West African, Brazilian, classical, and jazz. For the past few years, Gilad has been playing and touring with legendary jazz singer Mark Murphy, the great bassist Santi DeBriano, and violin star Regina Carter. He has also been recording and touring with his trios, On 3 (with Vinny Valentino) and Trio Del Sol (with Freddie Bryant and Misha Piatigorsky).

Valentina Soboleva-Belinskaya (vocals and prima domra)
Dmitry Belinskiy (prima balalaika)
Moscow

Valentina Soboleva-Belinskaya and Dmitry Belinskiy are leading forces behind Quartet "SKAZ." Formed in 1973, the quartet was the founder of the modern approach to traditional Russian folk music. Ever since, the band has been spreading Russian music all over the world. Quartet "SKAZ" frequently performs in Europe, the United States, and Asia, and has released seven record albums and several CDs.

Maxim Karpychev (clarinet)
Muzeon Sculpture Park (Fallen Monument Park), Moscow

Maxim Karpychev was born in Crimea to a family of musicians. He started playing the clarinet when he was 7 years old, after his parents promised to buy him a kitten if he joined music school.

Maxim eventually moved away from the classical music of his youth to pursue his growing interest in the folk traditions of woodwind instruments. Today, he plays with several bands that share his wide-ranging musical tastes. He also teaches clarinet and sax.

Larry Brown, a.k.a "Grey Reverend" (vocals and guitar)
Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn

Larry Brown began to study music in the summer of 1996, after moving into an apartment in which an electric guitar was left behind. Studying on his own, Larry began to understand some of the core elements of music composition. It was not long before he was collaborating with fellow musicians and arranging for solo and ensemble performances. He began performing under the moniker Grey Reverend in 2004, and has recently collaborated with such musical minds as Jason Swinscoe of the Cinematic Orchestra, Mikael Jorgensen of Wilco, and Cynthia G. Mason. He is currently working on his second release.

Larry has been featured on the Cinematic Orchestra's Live at Royal Albert Hall and is now working with the group on a film score for a soon-to-be-released movie.

Daphna Mor (recorder)
Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn

Originally from Israel and now based in New York, Daphna Mor began her music studies at the age of 8. Daphna has been seen in performances throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States as both a soloist and ensemble and band member. She won first prize in the Settimane Musicali di Lugano Solo Competition and has twice been the winner of the Boston Conservatory Concerto Competition.

Daphna received her Bachelor of Music from the Boston Conservatory with highest honors as valedictorian of the class of 2000. She is a graduate of the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, and was awarded the prestigious status of "privileged musician" for her mandatory army service with the Israel Defense Forces.

Over the course of her career, Daphna has premiered numerous new pieces for solo recorder and different ensembles, and is a strong advocate for contemporary music for the recorder. She is a musician for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Education Department and a musician in residence at New York City's B'nai Jeshurun synagogue, one of the hundreds of New York-area synagogues that receive support from UJA-Federation.

Inbal Paz (vocals)
The Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem

Inbal Paz is a young singer with a unique and personal voice that combines different vocal styles. She wrote her first single, "Guiding Light," in memory of her mother, who died of cancer in February 2006. It was written in both English and Hebrew.

Julia Feldman (vocals)
Mount of Olives, Jerusalem

Julia Feldman was born in Russia into a family with a large musical background - her grandfather was an accomplished conductor and a leader of a philharmonic orchestra for more then 20 years, her grandmother was a singer, and her father plays jazz piano. She had been classically trained by studying the piano from the age of 5 until 1990, when the family joined hundreds of thousands of other Russian émigrés who, with the help of UJA-Federation beneficiary agencies, were able to leave Russia. In Israel, she continued her classical piano studies with jazz improvisation in the music department of the High School of Arts in Jerusalem. In 2003, she graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem.

Since then, Julia has frequently worked with leading Israeli jazz artists and music groups. In addition to her intensive creative work, she is also a music educator, teaching voice, theory, and jazz improvisation at the conservatory of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and conducting improvisation workshops for vocalists.

Dov Rosenblatt (vocals)
Riverdale

When Dov Rosenblatt was 11 years old, he placed an ad in the local newspaper in Baltimore offering his musical services to play keyboard at private parties. Despite his mother's warnings to callers ("He's only 11"), he launched his performance career at that tender age.

Now 22, Dov continues to write, sing, record, and perform with two bands in the New York area, Blue Fringe and Gonzo Station. A self-taught musician - piano, drums, and guitar - Dov writes in a variety of song styles, from pop and rock to reggae. He is a natural performer and communicates with his audience in venues ranging from clubs in New York City to campus concerts, mixing soft humor and a passionate presentation style.

Nick Sarabianov (vocals and guitar)
Bersenevskaya Embankment, Moscow

Nick Sarabianov is one of the founders of the Moscow band Antonik. The band writes its own songs and also covers the music of other talented artists, such as Johnny Griffin, Randy Brecker, Dave Brubeck, Anatole Gerasimov, and many others.

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb (vocals)
Greenwich Village Rooftop

Born in Jerusalem in 1979 to a European-born father and a mother with Sephardic roots, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb has absorbed as much music as she's had the opportunity to. Her wide-ranging influences include Middle Eastern music, American folk, classical music, Israeli punk, blues, early electronica, experimental rock, Spanish guitar, French chanson, and, of course, jazz.

She currently collaborates with MacArthur "genius award" winner John Zorn on two of his projects. On his "Shir Ha-Shirim" composition, she narrates in Hebrew, while an alternate version is narrated in English by living legends Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. Additionally, Ayelet works with Mycale, an all-female vocal ensemble commissioned by Zorn to create collaborative arrangements to music from his Book of Angels. Ayelet currently splits her time between New York, Jerusalem, and Wellington, New Zealand, a life that has inspired her to start a new bicontinental band called Pangaea, with one leg in Israel and another in New York.

Lyuba Pon'kina (vocals)
Muzeon Sculpture Park (Fallen Monument Park), Moscow

As a member of the Moscow-based band Lakocha, Lyuba Pon'kina sings Russian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian songs. She has a special interest in all flavors of European folk music, including Moldavian, Romanian, Gypsy, and Balkan. To Lyuba, this rich, traditional music - where one person is composer, poet, and performer at the same time - is an endless source of today's world music.

Her dream is to perform with musicians from different countries and different cultures, and to spread folk music all over the world.

Idit Eshel (vocals)
Jaffa, With Tel Aviv in Background

Idit Eshel is a Jaffa-based singer-songwriter and a veteran in the Israeli music scene. Her songs are inspired by world music and American folk music. She writes personal lyrics and songs that create a joyous atmosphere. The colors of her voice are widely varied, ranging from pop to Tibetan overtones to tribal singing. Idit has also voice coached major Israeli rock stars including Shotei Ha'nevua.

Ofer Callaf (vocals)
Tower of David, Jerusalem

Ofer Callaf is a multidisciplinary singer and artist who has worked with varied ensembles and orchestras.

Born in Jerusalem, Callaf is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where he now heads the newly founded Interdisciplinary and Jazz Vocal Department. Ofer performs regularly with composer Dr. Michael Wolpe, Israel Prize laureate Nahum Heiman, renowned writer Dan Almagor, and others. Ofer has sung with such leading jazz artists as Uri Caine and Don Byron, performed with modern and ethnic dance troupes, and toured in local and international festivals. He also has recorded with leading artists Leah Shabat, Dudu Barak, Talma Alyagon, and Uzi Hitman and produced and recorded renewed classics for Nostalgia: Preservation of Classic Israeli Music.

Alexis Kashar (ASL signer)
Times Square, Manhattan

Alexis Kashar is an attorney in New York City. Her volunteer work with the Jewish Deaf Resource Center, supported by UJA-Federation, inspired the creation of UJA-Federation's Jewish Community Deaf Interpreting Fund in New York.

Alexis is also chair of the Scarsdale Village Council on People with Disabilities, vice president of the New York School for the Deaf Board of Trustees, and chair of the National Association of the Deaf's Civil Rights Subcommittee. Alexis has made international presentations as an advocate for laws providing access for deaf and disabled people.

Jeremiah Lockwood (vocals and guitar)
Washington Square Park, Manhattan

Son of composer Larry Lockwood and grandson of the legendary Cantor Jacob Konigsberg, Jeremiah Lockwood began his musical career playing guitar and singing on the streets of Manhattan. At 14, he struck up a relationship with Piedmont blues master Carolina Slim, with whom he has performed extensively over the years. Jeremiah and Carolina Slim have appeared together at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and the New School Blues Festival, and have been profiled in The New York Times Magazine and Time Out New York. Jeremiah has worked for years as the front man and composer for The Sway Machinery, a blues-world beat-cantorial music ensemble.

Jeremiah is a recipient of the 2007-2008 Six Points Fellowship, an initiative funded by UJA-Federation that supports emerging artists creating new work with Jewish content. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Shasta, and their sons Moses and Jacob.

Y-Love, stage name for Yitz Jordan (hip-hop vocals)
Unisphere, Flushing Meadows, Queens

Y-Love is an award-winning and inspirational Jewish hip-hop artist who is using music to make the world a better place. His compelling personality and multilingual musical talents have received worldwide acclaim from New York to Australia. Orthodox for nine years, Y-Love's unique perspectives on Jewish identity, building peace, countering prejudice, and cross-cultural relations have captivated minds at schools, theaters, and various houses of worship worldwide.

His unique musical style, blending such holy tongues as ancient Aramaic and Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, and Latin over ethnic and futuristic urban beats, was called the "soundtrack to social progression" by URB magazine, and XXL magazine said Y-Love "is making hip-hop kosher."

Y-Love has appeared on Israel's Channel 10, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and in Italy's La Republica, and was featured on BBC World News, spreading his message to "use hip-hop to elevate, not to tranquilize minds."

Abate Berihun (saxaphone)
Clementine Grove, Israel

Abate Berihun is an Ethiopian Israeli composer, sax player, and vocalist who immigrated to Israel in 1999. His music preserves the spirit of his Ethiopian origins and yet travels far - to free modern jazz with surprising touches of blues and gospel.

Julie Eigenberg (vocals)
Long Island Sound, Great Neck, Long Island

Julie is a native New Yorker and a Grammy Award-winning songwriter. She has performed on and off Broadway and recorded with The Manhattan Transfer.