To Gitit Shoval, music is a virus. “A good virus. You can’t get rid of it,” she said.
Shoval first started singing in Israel when she was 13 in 1978. Since then, she has recorded several albums, played countless shows and, seven years ago, moved to Toronto.
“We have four kids,” she said of herself and her husband, music producer Ron Druyan. While performing in Israel, Shoval had little time to spend with her children, who are now 24, 19, 14 and 11.
“I was working really hard in Israel, I was out of the house, I had [musical] groups I conducted… [In Canada] I decided to concentrate on [my kids]… to be a stay-at-home mom was an outstanding experience,” she said.
While adapting to her new role, Shoval also helped her husband with their company, GRD International in Canada, which dubs cartoons worldwide in such languages as Russian, Hebrew and Mandarin.
“I’m the [voice of] Israeli Barbie and the Israeli Smurfette,” Shoval said.
But after a few years, the singer began to miss her microphone.
“After three or four years, I decided to start singing again.”
At first she started small, like singing the national anthem at a Blue Jays game. But it wasn’t enough.
“Around two years ago, it started to tickle me. I wanted to start [performing] again.”
For Shoval, the challenge was finding a style and language that she connected with. She didn’t want to limit herself to Hebrew songs, but didn’t quite feel right singing only in English.
“I started to listen to songs. There was a nice number of songs I really liked. I was surprised to find out that most of the writers are Jewish and I thought… ‘I can connect through this,’” she said.
These songs, which included Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Hallelujah and You’ve Got a Friend, aren’t necessarily Jewish, but they represented an important contribution to the musical community. “We started to rehearse [these songs], Ron and I, and I just fell in love with this material. It came to a point where we wanted to create a show,” she said.
And they did.
Shoval, with the help of her husband, who also plays piano, and her two children, Tutti, 19, a singer, and Shaqed, 14, who plays percussion, will be performing this month at York University’s Tribute Hall before launching an American tour.
The show, called From Gershwin to Dylan: The Genius of Jewish Song Writers, is Shoval’s first major concert since Shoval immigrated to Canada. Except that now, her whole family is involved.
“This is my dream. It’s actually a family business,” she said, adding that her oldest daughter, Tomi, and her youngest daughter, Emily, are helping to produce the show.
The concert itself is a tribute to Jewish composers and will also include stories about musicians, including Carole King and George Gershwin.
“There’s a difference between Jewish music and Jewish writers,” Shoval said. “We’re such a small nation. The influence of the Jewish people on global music is unbelievable. There’s so many hits.”
Shoval decided which songs to include in the concert based on her own taste and the connection she felt to the melody.
“It was a matter of… what I liked, what I thought would suit my voice,” she said.
“It’s like, how do you know when you fall in love? You just know it. I sing it… and it’s there.”
While organizing the concert, the singer decided to donate all profits, after expenses, to charity, something that she plans to do for all her performances from now on.
“I decided every note I’m going to sing, at least part of it, will be for a good cause,” she said, adding that the money from this concert will go to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel.
Along with professional musicians, the show also includes performances from students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where Tutti participated in a five-week program.
“When I heard [the students play], I just fell off my chair. To be able to work with such young people, it gives such freshness to your music,” Shoval said.
Tickets for the concert, which starts at 8 p.m. on June 16 at York University’s Tribute Community Recital Hall, range from $18 to $72. For more information or to buy tickets, visit yorku.ca/perform or call 416-736-5888.
