Fes Festival of World Sacred Music

Tonight, my husband Russ took me to hear a wonderful concert in San Francisco. It was held at the Jewish Community Center and was called "The Spirit of Fes: Paths to Hope."

This festival was founded in 1994 after the first Gulf War, and is an international blending of faiths and music traditions. The Spirit of Fes concert travels internationally and we got in on their last performance of the year.

The concert featured music from the Sephardic, Islam, Christian, and Hindu traditions. The songs were sung in Tamil, Latin, Hebrew, Ladino, Galician-Portuguese, Sanskrit, Arabic, and English. The musicians sang singly, and blended together. A Sufi troop played the second half of the program and the energy was contagious.

This was such a truly wonderful and awesome experience. Both of us enjoyed the evening of joyous song and spiritual harmony represented by this wholly diverse group of musicians who have been traveling together for months. The artists come from Africa, Asia, and North America.

If you are interested in more information about the festival or the touring group, the program listed these websites:  www.spirtoffes.org and www.fesfestival.com. I rushed home to write this blog entry tonight and I haven't looked these up myself yet.

We bought 4 CDs at the concert, and we enjoyed listening to Gerard Edery's on the way home. He has the most amazing baritone voice. All the musicians were top-notch and it would be hard to say who we enjoyed the most. It was the beautiful energy of the musical tapestry that spoke so deeply to our hearts.

Music is a language that can span the gulf that separates us. If we could replicate the intention of this concert a billion-fold, there would be no divide. We spoke with several of the musicians afterwards and the percussionist Jamey Haddad commented that it was sad that so few people came out to hear their concerts when they played in the colleges and universities. All I can say is that those who missed it, missed something unique and special. I hope those young people on zaadz who read this blog will put this into their calendars for next year and talk it up to everyone they know. There is hope in the world, and our young people need to know about movements like this, as this is an important antidote to despair.

I hope to make it to Morocco within the next few years to participate in the full festival, which includes a multidisciplinary forum and other components.

Namaste, Ramona