with Smadar Levi Presented in collaboration with the Jewish Community Center

Smadar Levi is an award-winning performer whose "Seeds of Peace” seeks to unite cultures through music. Smadar has recently performed in Russia, in Morocco at the Fez Music Festival, at the Sephardic Music Festival in New York, and the Daniel Pearl Music Days Commemoration in San Francisco. Smadar's new project is based on a book of poetry by Bernard Lewis, Music of a Distant Drum. The book is a collection of previously unpublished poetry of both Jews and Muslims and provides a fascinating and unusual glimpse into Middle Eastern history. It represents the three major languages of medieval Islam—Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, with the remainder in Hebrew. The poetry ranges from the 7th to the 18th centuries and from panegyric and satire to religion, women, and love. This project of poetry and original music by Smadar Levi is composed and presented along with discussion that links the Judeo-Christian-Muslim cultures together.