Road Stories Tagged: Israeli Ethnic Ensemble

By Lindajoy Fenley

“Would you like a Greek party? … a Balkan party? … a Middle Eastern party?”

Midwestern children at the Israeli Ethnic Ensemble’s workshops shout “yes” as Sefi Asfuri Hirsh picks up his bouzouki with intricate mother of pearl inlay for Greek sounding music and Talya Solan sings Hebrew lyrics.

By Lindajoy Fenley

We drove nearly an hour over straight prairie roads to give workshops to high 70 high schoolers in the small town of Marion and later to about the same number of elementary students at Litchville Elementary. This small North Dakotan school district with dwindling enrollment draws students from a 400-square-mile area.

Appreciative high schoolers were shy about asking questions but as soon as the workshop ended, they told their choir teacher they’d like to get a bus for Saturday because so many of them want to go to the Israeli Ethnic Ensemble’s concert at Valley City State University.

By Lindajoy Fenley

There is much to report about rich experiences in world of visual arts last week as South Dakotans responded to the Israeli Ethnic Ensemble’s musical gifts with plastic arts, ranging from opportunities to work with crafts to an invitation into the studio of a nationally acclaimed sculptor.

By Lindajoy Fenley

Just as Israel sits between Asia, Africa and Europe, members of the Israeli Ethnic Ensemble look to those three continents for their ancestry. “Each one of us has a parent from Europe [or America] and another from either Asia or Africa,” Avri Borochov told an Aberdeen audience this week.