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Released: Wednesday, August 3
Free Online Series

In June, we launched the first season of Secret Chord Concerts, a new series spotlighting top Jewish musicians worldwide today. Episode 3 will feature Neta Elkayam—a world-renowned Israeli singer of North African music who connects the spirits of her Moroccan Jewish mothers to audiences around the world. As described in The New York Times: “It is that work of bridging gaps, across time and nations — and in particular drawing attention to women artists — that makes Ms. Elkayam important.”

In this performance, Elkayam performs as a duo with her multi-instrumentalist, musical director Amit Hai Cohen. Together, the duo creates an intimate and energetic sound, melding music from the Moroccan Jewish repertoire with jazz melodies, as well as rock, pop and other contemporary influences. 

Neta was granted two coveted international awards for her work in 2022: the Moroccan TMM Trophy for spreading the Moroccan Jewish Voice around the world, and the Pomegranate Award for Sephardi Excellence in the Arts from the American Sephardi Federation.

About the 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. Season 1 episodes will air the first Wednesday of every month from June until October.

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.

This program is produced and presented by the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in partnership with the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music