“TWO VOICES, ONE VISION” CONCERT AT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ON MARCH 15 BLENDS CULTURAL SENSIBILITIES
Thursday March 15 at 7:30pm
at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, NYC

Two of Israel’s most popular singers — Noa (Achinoam Nini), and Mira Awad,– blend Jewish and Arab musical sensibilities as a gesture of tolerance and understanding in an interesting cross-cultural musical collaboration on Thursday March 15 at 7:30pm at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. “Two Voices, One Vision,” A Concert of Coexistence, mirrors on stage the work on the ground of The Abraham Fund Initiatives in Israel. The New York and Jerusalem-based domestic advocacy group develops programs, public policies and societal models that promote the cause of a shared society between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens.

“Two Voices, One Vision,” weaves together folk-flavored contemporary music that reflects both Arab and Jewish sensibilities. The evening’s songs will be in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Performing with Noa and Mira will be some of Israel’s leading instrumentalists, including the guitarist Gil Dor, Noa’s long-time collaborator and music director.

Noa, from a Yemenite Jewish background, is one of Israel’s most prominent singing stars. The actress and singer Mira — a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel — stars on one of Israel’s most popular television shows (incidentally a comedy that tackles the thornier aspects of Jewish and Arab co-existence). Noa and Mira have appeared together on several occasions and have represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow in 2009, performing their song “There Must Be Another Way” for a huge, international television audience. In the fall they toured together in India to great acclaim.

Their collaborative, cross-cultural work is deeply personal and, in ways that Americans may not readily understand, a matter of serious personal and professional risk. (Threats are all too common.)

About their friendship, Mira has said, “there have been attempts to injure it and break it apart.” Noa has said, “despite the difficulties and the omnipresent pain forever threatening to engulf us, our resonance is so deep it often takes my breath away.”

The Abraham Fund Initiatives was founded in 1989. It has offices in New York, London and Jerusalem. Its international president is Ami Nahshon. Orni Petruschka and Howard Sohn serve as the Israeli and American co-chairs of the international board of directors.

Tickets from $75 to $250 are on sale through the Jazz at Lincoln Center box office, Broadway and 60th Street, 212/721-6500; www.jalc.org. For preferred patron tickets and post-concert reception information, please contact The Abraham Fund, at 212/661-7770, ext. 200, or e-mail info@abrahamfund.org