Thursday, November 16
6:30 pm Cash Bar | 7:30 pm Concert
In Person at The Weitzman (5th and Market)
Tickets – $20 General Admission| $15 Member Admission

Purchase Tickets

A short of this live performance will be released for all to view as a part of the Secret Chord Concerts series at a later date.

Spanning from Temple times to today, piyyutim utilize complex and beautiful Hebrew poetry to infuse spirit and meaning into the sacred and ordinary moments of human experience. The stirring melodies are rooted in the illustrious and colorful tradition of maqam– a distinct system of musical expression found exclusively in the music of the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, and North Africa. In their debut concert at the Weitzman Museum, Piyyut Rising honors and reinvents the living sacred traditions without compromising the nuances that distinguish it from the Ashkenazi and Western soundscape of American Jewish music. Join us for this unforgettable evening of music.

More about the Ensemble
“Piyyut Rising” is an ensemble of musicians and prayer leaders excavating the power and beauty of Mizrahi Jewish expression through ancient poetry and song. Led by Rabbi Yosef Goldman and Yoni Battat, Piyyut Rising honors the artists’ Iraqi, Syrian, and Yemenite ancestry in conversation with their intersecting musical influences. Their interactive performances, workshops, and recordings allow listeners to experience the spiritual and emotional depth of Middle Eastern piyyut (liturgical poetry) and the ages-old tradition of Arab melodies that adorn them. 

Piyyut Rising is a project of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute, whose mission is to use song to cultivate spiritual community throughout the Jewish world. Yoni and Yosef met through Rising Song and connected over their mixed Mizrahi and Ashkenazi identity. They have now been studying Piyyut repertoire together for several years. 

Building on the fragments of the Mizrahi musical traditions that they grew up with, they have made a concerted effort to reclaim ownership of the texts and melodies that brought meaning to the lives of their ancestors. By presenting this music in modern Jewish communities that have been historically dominated by Jews of European descent, Piyyut Rising is expanding the diversity of American Jewish expression and centering the Mizrahi voices that have been historically marginalized in the US.

PIYYUT RISING IS:

• Yosef Goldman – voice
• Yoni Battat – oud, viola, voice
• Joey Weisenberg – fretless bass
• April Centrone – percussion 
• Yahala Lachmish – special guest vocals

About the Secret Chord Concerts series

Secret Chord Concerts is a free on-demand video series featuring 15-25 minute performances from celebrated Jewish musicians representing a broad range of styles, heritages, and histories and recorded live in front of intimate audiences in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

A cross-country partnership between the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (The Weitzman) on historic Independence Mall in Philadelphia, and the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music (Lowell Milken Center) in Los Angeles, generated this new online offering. Both presenting organizations are committed to inspiring in people of all backgrounds a greater appreciation for the diversity of the American Jewish experience. This season’s episodes were filmed at The Weitzman, against the striking backdrop of Independence Hall, and in UCLA’s beautiful recording studio.

You may also be interested in…

Secret Chord Concerts – Episodes from Season 1

Have a Question?
View our FAQ

Live at The Weitzman
101 South Independence Mall East (Corner of 5^th & Market)
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Produced by the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in partnership with Hadar’s Rising Song Institute