Whether gathered in the interior courtyards of the houses in the Jewish quarter kneading the dough for Passover matzah, or in the Rif mountains, where Berber women gather the grains at harvest time, women accompany their quotidian tasks with song.  They share the joys and sorrows of their lives in the richly varied traditional repertoire explored in this joint concert by Vanessa Paloma (voice, medieval harp) and Samira Kadiri (voice), accompanied by Nabil Akbib (violin, oud, percussion), David Martinelli (percussion) and Romeo Guzman (nay).

Paloma grew up in Colombia, tracing her Jewish roots to the Sephardic community of Spain generations earlier.  Kadiri, a classically trained soprano, is a Moroccan Muslim.  Together they reflect on the shared pleasures and pains of women’s lives, celebrating the sisterhood that emerges as voices gather in the diverse soundscape of the Maghreb region:  Gharnati, Berber, Andalusian, Algerian, and Jaquetía (Moroccan Judeo-Spanish)—a gorgeous array of idioms, expressing everything from the pangs of romantic love to the ache of spiritual yearning.