The Hebrew word for the area now called Spain was S'pharad. Sephardim (pron. Seffar-DEEM) were the Jews who lived in Spain until 1492, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ordered them expelled. Since then, Sephardim have lived outside Spain, but have maintained their cultural and religious traditions. The Sephardim in Muslim and, then, Christian, Spain achieved a very high level of sophistication and achievements in the arts, sciences, business and government. When Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the majority of the Sephardim went east and settled along the Mediterranean basin, mostly in Turkey, Greece and Italy. Some settled further east in the Muslim countries of the Levant - Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, while others settled in the Balkans. Their language was Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, or Judezmo: Spanish with an admixture of words of Hebrew origin, analogous to Yiddish, which was Bavarian German with Hebrew added. As the Sephardim settled in their new homes, they incorporated words from their new host languages into Ladino.
Their music had many Iberian features, such as the themes of the stories, the song forms, and distinctive rhythms. It also exhibits some Jewish modal features as well. As time went on, the newly-settled Sephardim began to pick up musical influences from their new surrounding cultures. A very funny example of the mixture of languages that was part of the Sephardic experience is one of Alhambra's favorite songs, from Alexandria, called Fih Shara Canet Bentit Masha. This song has phrases in Arabic, French, Italian, Turkish and English.
Alhambra was founded in 1981 by Dr. Isabelle Ganz to perform this rich repertory. The ensemble has been the recipient of New York Council on the Arts grants to supplement fees for New York State performances, and a grant from the Maurice Amado Foundation to produce a CD of Sephardic music, which was used to record "The Joy of Judeo-Spanish Song".
Alhambra was a finalist in the Concert Artists Guild Competition and won first prize in the Jewish Performing Arts Competition held in New York City. The group has toured Andalucia at the invitation of the provincial government of Córdoba, Spain, performed to sold-out houses in London's Purcell Room and Almeida Theatre, as well as in Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, St. Paul's Ordway Theatre, at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, with the New York City Symphony, for the World Music Institute in N.Y. and the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles. Other engagements have included the "First International Festival of Jewish Art Music" in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Quincentennial Celebration in Istanbul, Turkey, the Festival of Early Music in Québec, in Bogotá, Colombia, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and at colleges, folk festivals and community centers throughout the U.S.
Isabelle Ganz - mezzo-soprano, guitar, hirtenschalmei
Michael Hess - kanun, nay, violin
Cantor Daniel Pincus - tenor or Elliot Z. Levine - baritone
Haig Manoukian - oud
Peter Basil Bogdanos - percussion (dumbek, bender, riq)
Maurice Chedid - Arabic singer and oud
Joseph Deninzon - electric and acoustic violin
Alhambra performs as a quartet, quintet or sextet.
