DAVID D’OR

David D’or’s unique counter-tenor voice is known throughout the world and led him to perform in the presence of the King of Thailand and the Pope at the Vatican among many others around the world, but an international career at the opera world, including a very tempting offer from the Metropolitan opera in New York, did not appeal to him. He decided instead to go in search of his roots.

Born in Israel (where he is a very well known star), coming from a family of Libyan Jewish cantors with ancient sources in Spanish Andalusia, his root-searching led him to discover and uncover a unique treasure which led back to the chanting at the Holy Temple. David discovered that his great-grandfather was one of the most important Rabbis in Libya, originating from a family of Jews who were expelled from Spain during the inquisition. He approached Rabbis from the Libyan community in search of the source of the beautiful prayer songs he heard as a child in his home and in synagogue. Their belief is that those magical holy songs were orally passed from father to son and are related back to the prayer songs which were sung by the Levites at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Nowadays the songs are used by the Libyan Jewish community in the prayers of Yom Kippur and the Holy Days.

David has collected these Holy Days’ songs, ancient chants, Yemenite Jewish songs of prayer, Sabbath songs such as “Lecha Dodi” ( with a melody that he had discovered in an ancient synagogue), and with his band of young virtuoso musicians from different origins (North Africa, Israel, Croatia) he has created a new show, full of emotion and energy. A “melting pot” of sounds, rhythms and colours, using traditional instruments such as the Gumbush (Turkish Banjo-like instrument), accordion, Duduk, clarinet, violin and various middle-eastern percussions… and even a Shofar, the traditional ram’s horn which is blown in Jewish holy days in the synagogue and known “to open the sky for prayers and wishes”.

Contact: Moshe Morad  moshe.morad@gmail.com