The 15th Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival is already taking place in our county's backyard, but two performers' ties to the area make this year's event hit a little closer to home.
Doni Zasloff Thomas of the Mama Doni Band and Dan Saks of DeLeon both attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, an experience that influenced both of their musical paths that brought them to the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center's music festival in Washington, D.C., which began on the first and runs through June 14.
Mama Doni will perform at the 2nd Annual WJMF in the Park geared toward families on Sunday, while Saks will share Sephardic songs and stories on Saturday. Matisyahu is headlining this year's show with an acoustic performance showcasing his reggae, rock and hip-hop stylings. Complemented by performances including country singer and humorist Kinky Friedman and Israeli violinist Asi Matathias, this year's musicians fall within a wide range of genres.
'I'm always aiming to show the diversity of Jewish music, that runs through all of my festivals,' said WJMF Director Lili Kalish Gersch, who has worked on the annual festival since 2008. 'Any good festival has a really great mix of headliners as well as up and coming names. We're doing groundbreaking work that we really believe in.'
The festival combines well-known national acts with local artists, and some that fall in between. Mama Doni, made up of Thomas and primary collaborator and co-writer Eric Lindberg, has received national acclaim for their children's albums, including the 2013 Parents Choice Award for their 'Emunah' album. Thomas, however, grew up in Rockville, and the community - including her time at Charles E. Smith - significantly impacted her music and outlook.
'Those were the formative years where I was trying to figure out who I am,' Thomas said. 'I held onto Jewish music, culture and even prayer to get through growing up and becoming a woman. I want desperately for my kids to have that because it got me through all of the tough times and makes me appreciate the good time now.'
Prince George's county native Saks has been in the business for years, acting as frontman for Sephardic rock group DeLeon and performing with the LeeVees and children's band the Macaroons. His experience at Charles E. Smith helped develop his musical background; his class was the first to have a real music program in the school, he said, and due to illness the music teacher had Saks cover for him, teaching the younger grades.
'It was a great opportunity,' he said, 'something that can really only happen in a small school like that.'
While the yearly event has provided an outlet for Jewish musicians of all genres and backgrounds to perform for fifteen years, its child-friendly counterpart WJMF in the Park is on its second year. By setting aside a day specifically for younger audience members and their families, the Washington DCJCC hopes to unite the community as well as spread the word about their youth-centered programming throughout the year.
Genre-spanning music is found in abundance at the WJMF, including jazz, reggae, classical, Klezmer and country. One trend that seems to resonate with attendees every year, Gersch said, is cultural fusion, citing last year's popular Klezmer/Bhangra performance Frank London's Klezmer All-Stars and Deep Singh.
'I do think people are very interested in exploring how Jewish music can authentically fuse with other ethnically-specific genres,' Gersch said.
In addition to the music festival, the Washington DC JCC puts on Jewish film and literary festivals. Events of this kind - and on this scale - are important for the community as well as those taking part and sharing their talents.
'There's only a handful of Jewish music festivals with the budget to put on something of this size,' said Saks, who helped start a Jewish music festival in New Mexico. 'For bands like mine that make left-of-center music - it's pretty niche - our outlets are limited, so a festival like WJMF open to that is pretty valuable to us.'
'Not only is it profound and such a memory maker for kids, but it helps people connect to their culture,' Thomas added. 'People get to celebrate who they are in a bigger way.'
kgroff@gazette.net
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