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Galeet Dardashti is a performer, anthropologist, and advocate of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish culture.
Early Years edit
The granddaughter of Yona Dardashti, a renowned singer of Persian classical music in Iran in his day, and daughter of esteemed cantor Farid Dardashti, Middle Eastern vocalist and composer. Galeet Dardashti is the first woman in her family to continue her family tradition of Persian and Jewish musicianship.
After performing in the US and Canada with The Dardashti Family from her childhood into her teenage years, Dardashti began her own independent musical pursuits. She has performed as a soloist both throughout the US and Israel, including significant cantorial work.
Anthropology + Education edit
Dardashti holds a Ph.D. in anthropology, specializing in cultural politics and contemporary Middle Eastern/Arab music in Israel. She is currently Assistant Professor of Jewish Music and Musician-in-Residence at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and she has published widely on her work. She offers residencies, lectures, and workshops on her artistic and academic work.
As a scholar, Dardashti’s work examines Mizrahi cultural politics/music, and Israeli media. Her current book project explores the Mizrahi piyyut (sacred poetry/song) phenomenon in contemporary Israel. Dardashti has also begun research on progressive, millenial Sephardi/Mizrahi North American Jews.
She has been a postdoctoral fellow at NYU and Rutgers and assistant professor/musician in residence at JTS. She is currently a visiting professor at NYU.
Musical Projects edit
Divahn
Dardashti is the founder and lead vocalist of the all-woman Middle Eastern Jewish ensemble, Divahn.
Infusing traditional and original Jewish songs with sophisticated harmonies, entrancing improvisations, and funky arrangements, today Divahn has engendered an international following.
The group's live shows include string arrangements, eclectic Indian, Middle Eastern, and Latin percussion, and vocals spanning Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Persian, Arabic, and Aramaic. Dardashti's diverse background performing Persian and Arab classical music, Ashkenazi cantorial music, Western classical music and jazz contribute to Divahn's unique sound.
The group has appeared at music festivals and live television and radio shows internationally and has shared the stage with some of the world's most master musicians. As one of the few groups performing Mizrahi and Judeo-Arab music in the US, Divahn welcomes its audiences to a space of shared Jewish and Muslim culture.
The Naming
Dardashti's acoustic/electronic project The Naming, supported by a Six Points Fellowship and a Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Fellowship, draws inspiration from the musical and cultural landscapes of the Middle East and some of the provocative yet unsung Biblical women who lived there. The Huffington Post calls the album "a heart-stopping effort." The Naming album launched in September 2010.
Monajat
In her newest 2023 commissioned release, Monajat, Dardashti reinvents the reflective musical ritual of penitential prayers (seliḥot) using digital technology to sing with recordings of her famed Iranian grandfather.
In the project, she re-imagines the Selihot ritual in collaboration with an acclaimed ensemble of musicians, an electronic soundscape, and dynamic live video art.
Monajat is a Persian word meaning "an intimate dialogue with the Divine". Using Persian melodies and Hebrew texts, the work pays homage to her grandfather. She performs some of the Persian piyutim (liturgical songs) traditionally chanted as part of the Selihot service, as well as other liturgical and non-liturgical Hebrew and Persian poetry set to new music.
The Nightingale of Iran Podcast
A documentary podcast series where Galeet, and sister Danielle Dardashti, search for answers about their famous Persian Jewish family who, at the height of their fame, left the country.
Publications edit
“Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Music in the US Public Sphere: 2000–2020,” in a special issue “Contemporary Jewish Music in America 2000–2020: A Symposium,” ed. M. Kligman and J. M. Cohen, Journal of Synagogue Music 46.1 (2021).
“Jews and Popular Culture in the Twentieth Century: Israel and the Middle East” with Amy Horowitz, in The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol.8: The Modern Period (c. 1815–2000) (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
“Televised Agendas: How Global Funders Make Israeli Television More Jewish,” Jewish Film and New Media: An International Journal 3.1 (2015).