Sapho and the Oriental Orchestra of Nazareth (France, Israël, Palestine)

ORIENTS

Sapho

Born in Marrakesh, spent her adolescence in France and fortified with a Swiss education, Sapho (she adopted this pseudonym very early in homage to the Greek poetess) finds herself at the crossroads of hybrid influences.

She frequents Paris and its university milieus, its theatre course there (with Antoine Vitez), and goes to auditions at the Petit Conservatoire de Mireille.

In the 80s, she performed on the rock music stage, put out remarkable albums (Janis-Passage d'Enfer, Barbarie, Passions-Passions…), at the same time she was devoting herself to journalism, literature (Douce Violence, Ils Préféraient la Lune - Un Mensonge), and drawing (Sous la Coupole)!!!

In the 90s she continued with her musical and pictorial creations and her work as a novelist, pursuing an atypical path of a uniquely gifted artist.

An eclectic, multi-talented personality, she has never forgotten her Judeo-Arab roots.

From 1986 she began singing the Arab melopoeia of the Egyptian diva Oum Kalthoum. leading to the production of an album and a show (Sapho Chante Oum Kalthum - a performance given at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris in1992.

Her inspiration has its source in her traditional Maghrebi and Arabo-Andalusian roots that she mixes with the modernity of her Western cultural background.

A profound humanist, she committed herself to peace in the Middle East, taking this message of tolerance to Gaza and to Jerusalem.

In this spirit, she wrote a book in 2002 entitled "For a very Near East" in which she expresses her profound desire and hope to see the Palestinian and Israeli people come together in mutual understanding. This work was presented to His Majesty the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI.

Her "Orients" creation, which she will perform in Fes, expresses the permanence of this commitment to the path of reconciliation and to engaged dialogue, the meeting at the crossroads of political engagement and the demands of artistic creativity of a high standard.

Surrounded by a large orchestra from Nazareth and made up of Muslim, Christian and Jewish musicians which she coordinates with her regular ensemble, along with Flamenco guitarists, Sapho expresses in this recent work all her convictions as an artist and woman, infatuated with liberty, peace, weaving together the tenuous but strong threads of a harmony rediscovered.

Website: jardinandalou.free.fr

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