Yasmin Levy

The Jerusalem-born Yasmin Levy has spent her career bringing youth and vitality to Ladino, the language Sephardic Jews took with them when they were banished from Spain more than five centuries ago. In the diaspora, the language took on elements of Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, French, Portuguese, and Italian. Levy's father, scholar and composer Yitzhak Isaac Levy, documented Ladino liturgical and romantic songs, a call that Levy herself has answered by becoming an Israeli pop star.

Mixing flamenco and fado, Hebrew and Spanish, Persian music and the songs of her father's native Turkey, Levy is a master of what The Guardian calls "smoldering melodrama." A dynamic and captivating performer, she commands the stage as she leads a band that speaks as many musical languages as she does. Fresh from starring in Salomé at London's National Theater, Levy leads every show as she does every song - with the urgency of someone attempting to salvage several centuries of disappearing history.