Noa, Israel’s leading international singer, will be making a rare concert appearance in Toronto on Nov 12.
Noa and her longtime collaborator guitarist Gil Dor will be showcasing songs from their 26-year recording career, spanning 15 international albums, and several domestic Israeli releases, including her latest recording, Love Medicine. The selections will be sung in English, Hebrew and Yemenite (her family’s country of origin).
She also performs in Calgary Nov. 10.
From her home in Tel Aviv, Noa (Achinoam Nini in Israel) reflected on how she and Dor met during her days as a student at the Rimon School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in Israel. The school was co-founded by Dor, and was modelled after the Berklee College of Music in Boston, which he had attended.
“Rimon was a small school, and the relationship between the students and teachers was very open and flowing,” Noa recalls. “There was an opportunity to collaborate with a couple of the teachers, specifically Gil, and that was a blast.”
It was this initial connection with Dor that formed the foundation for her career. The meeting eventually also led to one of Noa’s most significant career milestones: an introduction to American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, whom Dor knew from his days at the Berklee College.
“It was Gil who introduced me to Pat,” Noa remembers. “Pat was very excited about our music and decided to produce our album (Noa, 1996). That is how we got our big break and got signed to Geffen Records….and from there we were on our way.”
Although Noa and Dor are married to different people, they continue to be friends, and their professional relationship has remained intact through many projects.
“Our work,” Noa explains, “is about the unique dialogue that has been created over the years of playing and writing together. We also listen very carefully; we’re listeners, both of us. We care about what the other is doing. We follow each other musically.
“It’s really not about us,” Noa continues. “Neither of us is in there to be huge stars, be out front, or be admired at all. We are interested in elevating the music that we’re playing to the highest possible level. We’re praying in the temple of… music.”
READ: NOA, TONY KUSHNER AND THE POLITICS OF ART
As a teenager, Noa was interested in music, but she did not consider it as a
career.
“I just made music because I needed to and because I loved to,” Noa explains. “I was thinking about going to university to study English. But then I moved back to Israel (from the United States) when I was 17, after I met the man who was to become my husband (Asher Barak). He was my inspiration for returning to Israel.”
Noa decided to become a singer when she served in the army and played with a military band. “It was during my military service that I realized that I needed to make music – this was my destiny. So I pursued it from that moment on.”
Noa expresses her enthusiasm for returning to Toronto. “We’re very much looking forward to coming,” she says. “We’re waiting for you with open arms, and hope that you will enjoy our musical offering.”
Noa’s left-wing political views created some controversy in Vancouver earlier this year when the Jewish National Fund of Canada withdrew its support of her Yom Ha’atzmaut concert there. However the Israeli Embassy and the Consulate General of Israel for Toronto and Western Canada stepped in and the concert was a sold-out success.
