Rona Kenan Workshop

Tuesday 8 July, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
(followed by Jam until 9pm)

SOAS Room G3
Free

We are extremely lucky to be able to present a workshop by the wonderful Israeli artist, Rona Kenan.

Rona is a singer/song-writer and guitarist whose dark velvety voice, biting lyrics and striking presence have set the bar on what it means to be a female performer in Israel.

She made her debut as a song-writer and performer at the age of 18, when she collaborated with musician Eran Tzur on a tribute album to poetess Yona Vollach. Two years later, she formed her first band and began performing in Tel-Aviv, where her hybrid mesh of old Russian folk and luminous Israeli poetry, cabaret sound and soulful performance drew a rapidly expanding cult following.

In 2004 she released her debut album: Breathing down to Zero, hailed by critics as "the best Hebrew album of the year". The album was produced by legendary Israeli producer/musician Izhar Ashdot, with whom she began collaborating some years earlier and under whose tutelage she remains. She became the first artist to be signed onto his label: "Izhar-Ashdot Music."

Rona will also be performing at Slow Boat to Haifa on the 6th July at the HMS President, a special event commissioned by the JCC for London and produced by YaD Arts to commemorate the end of the British Mandate. Set in 1946, the event will be complete with tea dances and secret partisan meetings. Rona will be playing an exclusive set of 40's classics in addition to her own work. For more information on this event please visit http://www.jcclondon.org.uk/Nightlife_Slow_Boat_to_Haifa.html

"The most prominent representative of the next generation in local (Israeli) rock."
Gal Ochovsky, Sept. 2004

"She's a fantastic composer....She sings beautifully…Halleluiah."
Avi Efrati, Tel-Aviv Magazine, 2004

"...Kenan is continuing to establish herself as an artist who performs her art while radiating quiet wisdom and purity."
Timora Lesinger, Ynet, 2007

Produced in association with JCC for London and YaD Arts