Chabab_Al_Andalous_JSMF_2014_Photography_Noam_ChojnowskiEthiocolor_for_JSMF_2015_photo_by_Jytte_MeilevangJSMF_2014_-_Ehud_Banai_and_Friends_-_Photo_by_Noam_ChojnowskiJSMF_2014_-_Photo_by_Michal_FattalJSMF_2014_-_Photo_by_Michal_FattalTower_of_David_Sacred_Music_Festival_2014_Photography_Michal_FattalThe In-House Festival presents original productions in the city’s most intriguing homes.
Knock Knock—an intimate theatrical surprise for multiple participants in a hotel.
The Under the Mountain Festival ascends the Temple Mount.
Contact Point unleashes dozens of artists on the Israel Museum for one frenzied night of live, one-time-only artistic experiences.
And of course, The Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival which is returning in an expanded format with dozens of musicians from across the globe who will travel to Jerusalem to celebrate their traditions through a diverse range of styles, artistic genres and voices.

Every summer for the last five years we have presented a creative program which emanates straight from Jerusalem, flourishes within the city, responds to it, and enriches it with more and more layers of sound and color. For us, Jerusalem is the greatest font of creativity in the world. For us, Jerusalem plays the starring role, forming a backdrop for the performances and acting as our primary source of inspiration.

And maybe this is why last summer was so significant for us. After years of deceptive quiet and an artistic, cultural and social awakening that sprang from within, racism, fear and polarity returned to the city’s streets and unraveled the delicate tapestry that was holding the city’s different populations together.

But in Jerusalem, as always, everything is a little more complex, charged and meaningful. And it is with this uniquely intricate backdrop that the Jerusalem Season of Culture is on its way with a plethora of festivals and high quality events that will expose Jerusalem, celebrate Jerusalem, and compel the city to confront itself and tell its complex and inspiring story with the help of both local and international art and creativity.

We are delighted to invite you to delve into an exciting cultural program that is jam-packed with diverse and unique artistic works that showcase Jerusalem as a city that has many faces, vibrant and multi-dimensional. We are proud to present the full program of the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival which is bursting with originally commissioned productions and unprecedented musical collaborations that have been created especially for the festival, as well as to offer you a taste of the other events which will soon be revealed in full. We are delighted to invite you to re-discover Jerusalem, with us, and to celebrate a summer of creativity.

Artistic Director—Itay Mautner
Executive Director—Naomi Bloch Fortis

The Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival: August 30-September 4

As summer draws to a close, the nights grow clear and the air is crisp and fresh, the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival fills the most complex and holy city in the world with a heavenly atmosphere. From within the walls of the Old City, from bustling squares, from the center of a regenerating city and from enchanted spaces under star-studded skies, springs the festival that calls on the peoples and faiths of the world to come to Jerusalem to celebrate themselves.

The Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival is much more than a festival of first-class music. It is a festival that turns Jerusalem into a place where utopia is offered the chance, if only for a week, to burst through the city’s daily reality into a place that hosts artists and audiences from across the globe in a spirit of equality and respect; a pilgrimage site where a new reality can be constructed based on past and present.

Now in its fourth year, the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival 2015 will achieve a new level of depth, sounding a harmonious, open and inclusive voice with an intensity that could only emanate from Jerusalem. The festival brings together original transatlantic productions that exhibit music as a tool to unite people right here and right now. It hosts musicians from all religions for collaborative performances that could only happen in the center of a city that is as familiar with seemingly impossible meetings as it is with fortified walls and humbly offers a an open stage that is respectful of everything that is considered sacred in the eyes of the artists and in the ears of the audience.

This year, the extended week-long festival will unfold in five locations and include 25 performances by a long and exciting list of musicians and artists from 16 countries: Jonny Greenwood (UK) and Shye Ben Tzur in an international debut that combines East and West in Rajasthan, Shuli Rand will perform songs recorded by the guru of secularity, Meir Ariel, Mark and Piris Eliyahu will lead the Maqam Ensemble, pianist Omri Mor will play with legendary Cuban musician Omar Sosa, Misirli Ahmet (Turkey) and Zohar Fresco (Israel) will drum together on the same stage, Itamar Doari will appear in an exclusive performance with the best of Spain’s Flamenco, and Max Romeo, one of the founding fathers of reggae, will light up Zion.

Artistic Directors: Itay Mautner, Gil Karniel, Gil Ron Shama

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