Israeli music legend set to tour
VIRTUOSO Israeli musician Yoni Rechter will bring his soundtrack to Israeli culture to Australia with his first tour later this month.
DALIA SABLE
VIRTUOSO Yoni Rechter -— one of Israel’s best-known artists -— will bring his soundtrack to Israeli culture to Australia with his first tour in the country this month.
Accompanied by his band, the composer, singer, pianist, musical director, producer and arranger will perform a series of concerts in Melbourne at the Classic Cinema in Elsternwick and at the Bennetts Lane jazz club.
“I’m very excited to tour Australia,” Rechter says from Israel. “I love to travel and perform, and music has taken me to many places that I would not [otherwise] have had the chance to see.”
Rechter first burst onto the music scene as the quiet keyboarder in 1970s band Kaveret — Israel’s equivalent of the Beetles.
Fresh out of his national service in the Israel Defence Force, Rechter and his Kaveret bandmates -— or Poogy as they were known outside Israel -— became the hottest act in the country.
At their peak, they performed a concert in the heart of Tel Aviv to a crowd of 500,000 people.
When the band split in 1976, members went their separate ways and Rechter began to collaborate with other artists, establishing himself as the foremost composer in Israel.
“I collaborated for many years with many singers, musicians, poets actors and directors. It only became my main activity in the last few years,” Rechter says.
Among the notable names that Rechter worked with over the years are folk singer Esther Ofarim, the late performer Yossi Banai and stadium rock-performer Yehudit Ravitz.
One of his best-known collaborations was on the iconic Israeli album Ha’Keves Ha’Shishah Asar (The Sixteenth Sheep) with songwriter Yonatan Geffen.
“I really appreciate deeply all my collaborates,” he says, giving special mention to poet Eli Mohar, whose poems Rechter composed music to, and director Miki Gurevitch with whom he worked in many theatrical productions.
Having composed scores of compositions for musicians, poets and theatrical performances over the years, Rechter says that it’s the more personal songs that hold the most meaning to him.
“There are songs that I feel I want to sing because they touch something deep in me,” he says. “On the other hand there are songs that I wrote but I never sing.”
Rechter will sing some of these personal songs while on his Australian tour. His first shows are scheduled as intimate gigs at the Classic Cinema on Sunday, November 8 and Monday November 9 where Rechter will be joined in three songs by students from the Mount Scopus Memorial College choir.
Rechter will also perform at Melbourne’s iconic Bennetts Lane jazz bar on Wednesday, November 11.
Enquiries
Classic Cinema
Bennetts Lane