Musikah Mizrahit, with Eliyahu Sills, Rachel Valfer, and Faisal Zedan of the Qadim Ensemble

Click here to register for this free in-person program. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy.  

Eliyahu Sills, Rachel Valfer, and Faisal Zedan of the Qadim Ensemble will perform music of North Africa and the Middle East.

Eliyahu Sills studied for more than ten years with the Hindaustani bansuri flute master G.S.Sachdev, one of the most highly esteemed musicians in that ancient tradition. In Turkey, he studied with Neyzen Omer Erdogdular and Neyzen Ahmet Kaya, in Morocco with Akdii Abdelsalaam, and in Israel with Itamar Shachar.

Rachel Valfer is a passionate singer and oud (Arabic lute) player who brings depth of feeling to every song. She studied Maqam and Persian dastgah modal systems in Israel and Palestine for six years at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and sings with several ensembles in the Bay Area. Gifted in the art of language, Rachel sings in Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, Greek, Turkish, Ladino, and Armenian.

Faisal Zedan, born in Syria, was divinely inspired to play Arabic percussion at the age of fifteen. He received instruction from a distant relative, the only drummer in his village of Oum Dbaid. Since moving to the United States, he has played with many of the greatest Arabic musicians, including Ali Jihad Racy, Julien Jâlal Eddine Weiss, and the band Kanzaman.

Program made possible, in part, by Anne Germanacos.