Fragments: Yoni Avi Battat in Concert

Please register to attend this free musical program, co-presented by KlezCalifornia. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy.  

Yoni Avi Battat brings Arab music into the soundscape of American Jewish life through composition, education, prayer, and performance on viola, violin, oud, and vocals. Described as “an education for the ear and the soul,” his debut album Fragments seeks to find new pathways to connect with ancestry and find healing around our fragmented identities, and especially his Iraqi-Jewish heritage. Battat’s newest project is Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project. Their album Simu Lev presents traditional Jewish music from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Morocco, Turkey, and Jerusalem. Battat has performed and recorded extensively as a solo artist and as a sideman with such musicians as Joey Weisenberg, Rabbi Yosef Goldman, Zach Mayer, Laura Elkeslassy, Nava Tehilah, and Yair Dalal. From 2021 to 2022 Battat toured nationally as an actor and violinist with the Tony Award-winning musical, The Band’s Visit. Battat lives in Boston, working locally and nationally to uplift Mizrahi (Middle-Eastern) identity in American Jewish communities.

This program is made possible, in part, by Anne Germanacos.