Ithaca College

Galeet Dardashti, the noted Iranian-Jewish American vocalist, cantor, and anthropologist, presents her new multimedia work “The Naming” on Sunday, February 27, 7:00 p.m., at the Emerson Suites, Egbert Hall, Ithaca College. The performance is free and open to the public.

Galeet will also be presenting two other events on Friday, February 25. At noon on Friday, she will be teaching a masterclass on Jewish music of the Middle East, open to Ithaca College students.

At 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening, she will be leading an inspiring and spiritual Sephardi-Mizrahi Shabbat service in the Chapel – this is also free and open to the public.

“The Naming” transforms the ghostly outlines of Biblical women into full-blown flesh-and-blood personalities. Dardashti’s songs tell the stories of why the Queen of Sheba shaved her legs, how Vashti laid down the line for her drunken husband and how a mysterious witch spoke King Saul’s doom and then served him a nice dinner. For Dardashti, these stories also intertwine with her own family’s tales of women breaking the rules and those of women in the Middle East today fighting to have their voices heard.

As a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, Dardashti was fascinated by stories of her grandfather, a great Jewish cantor in Tehran whose voice drew Muslims to his synagogue. In “The Naming,” she unites the Persian classical music that made her grandfather a musical icon with her deep connection to Jewish poetry and song to create lush, electronica-edged Middle Eastern compositions in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Persian.

Dardashti’s visit is taking place thanks to the generosity of Steven Weiss ’91 and is sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program and the Anthropology Department. For more information, please contact Rebecca Lesses, Jewish Studies coordinator, 307 Muller, 274-3556 or rlesses@ithaca.edu.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Kim Wojtanik in the H&S Dean’s Office at 274-3102 or kwojtanik@ithaca.edu. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.

To learn more about Galeet and her music, see the following links:

her musical website: http://galeetdardashti.com