"Shira u'Tfila" in Belgrade on October 8: Sephardic love songs in Ladino at the Jewish Cultural Centre

The Belgrade ensemble "Shira u'Tfila" ("Song and Prayer") performs on Thursday, October 8, from 20:00, at the Jewish Cultural Centre at Jevrejska 16 in Belgrade. The programme is called "Ljubav kroz vekove" - love through the centuries - and that is an accurate description of their repertoire.

The ensemble was founded in 2000 by singer and oud player Stefan Sablić, with the aim of preserving the music of the Sephardim of the Balkans, the Mediterranean and North Africa. "Shira u'Tfila" blends Judeo-Spanish, Ottoman-Turkish, Arabic and Balkan traditions and sings in Ladino, Hebrew, Serbian, Turkish and Greek. The repertoire includes wedding and love songs, lullabies and religious songs. They have seven albums and concerts in more than ten countries behind them.

Alongside Sablić, the line-up includes singer Branislava Podrumac, Filip Krumes on violin, Sinan Akifović on clarinet, Srđan Đorđević on double bass, Goran Milošević on percussion and Aleksandar Jovanović Šljuka on piano. They play the old melodies with improvisation and fusion, without a museum approach to the heritage.

For a Macedonian listener Ladino is not a foreign language: it was spoken by the Jewish communities of Bitola, Skopje and Štip before their deportation in March 1943. Tickets for the Belgrade concert cost 1,200 dinars (about 630 denars) and are on sale at tickets.rs.