On the occasion of the 63rd Independence Day of Israel, the Embassy of Israel hosted a reception at The Ashok, New Delhi.
The reception was also an opportunity to bid farewell to Ambassador Mark Sofer and Deputy Chief of Mission Eli Belotsercovsky, who were returning to Israel this summer after a four-year period in India. Over 600 guests arrived to be part of the mega celebrations.
As part of the celebrations, Israeli qawwali singer Shye Ben-Tzur, together with Rajasthani and Israeli musicians, performed Sufi music renditions in three languages — Hebrew, Hindi and Urdu — and dazzled the audience. The music lovers swayed to popular compositions like ‘Dil ki bahara banke' and ‘Dama dam mast kalandar' and many songs in Hebrew.
Ben-Tzur is an acclaimed Israeli composer, producer and performer who has been living in India for the past decade, creating music that brings together traditional Sufi qawwali and Rajasthani rhythms with Western elements.
Shye, who gave up the rock band Sword of Damocles, which he himself initiated in the early stages of his musical journey, said, “I was looking for sacred and meaningful music. When I attended a concert in Israel by Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Zakir Hussain, I was seduced. I came to the Ajmer Dargah and fell in love with qawwali.” At Ajmer Dargah, he learnt qawwali from qawwals, and in 2004 performed at Jahan-e-Khusrau, the prestigious international Sufi music festival held annually in the spring since the year 2001.
