Israeli Andalusian Orchestra Features Moroccan Musicians in National Tour

After the stop in Kiryat Motzkin this Wednesday, January 19, 2022, the Israeli Andalusian orchestra is expected in Beer Sheva on January 20, Tel Aviv on January 24 and Ra’anana on January 25 as part of a national tour in which five Moroccan musicians are participating. They are Abdellah Amli, Hisham Ayar, Hisham Morjane, Mohamed Shafari and Abdelfettah Otmani. They are spending a full year here, despite the restrictions due to the new coronavirus, to lend their expertise to the orchestra and enrich the musical education of the members, especially the younger ones, reports The Jerusalem Post.

"I have been dreaming for some time of bringing in musicians who know classical Andalusian music well. Here, we really don’t have much training on the ground," confides the orchestra’s CEO, Yaakov Ben Simon, recalling that "there is the generation [of musicians] who made their aliyah [from Morocco and Algeria] and who are now old, or many of its members have already died." The idea was for Abdellah Amli and the other Moroccan musicians to pass on part of their local musical education to the members of the orchestra based in Ashdod.

How did the Moroccans learn about the existence of the orchestra through various means? "I first heard about the orchestra in Essaouira [on the Atlantic coast of Morocco] in 2017. The orchestra was there for the Essaouira Andalusies Atlantiques Festival," says Abdellah. Hisham Morjane met the Israeli ensemble in a similar way, and the others heard about it through social media, television or friends. Amli, Morjane, Shafari and Otmani all performed with the orchestra at the 2019 Andalussyat Festival in Casablanca. As for Ayar, he reinforced the ranks of the team in a series of concerts in Israel in 2018-2019.