The orchestral maestro who blends musical styles of the East and the West to create a magical language
Jewish, Muslim and Christian musicians transcend religious and political differences
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
Conductors customarily appear in a black suit, a white shirt and a bow tie but Israeli conductor Tom Cohen does things differently. When he steps on stage at the Barbican next weekend to conduct his Jerusalem Orchestra East & West he will be tieless. “I’ll be in a suit, but nothing at the neck – that’s not for me,” he insists. “And I like to add something cool. When I was younger it was white shoes,” he laughs, “but nowadays I’m more subtle – I go for elegant shoes with coloured socks.”
It’s not only sartorially that Tom, 39, breaks the mould. His orchestra comprises Jewish, Muslim and Christian musicians, setting the example of music transcending religious and political division in Israel and beyond. Not only that, but Tom’s unique ability is to be able to transfer the music of Arab and North African countries to musicians from a Western classical background – and vice versa; his style has become known as ‘Levant music’.
“The outcome should be that if you know the music from home, you can appreciate it in its new ‘clothes’,” he explains.
Tom established the Jerusalem Orchestra East & West in 2009 with the former CEO Ofer Amsalem. He writes all the musical arrangements himself, synthesising classical, jazz and, for the London concert, Moroccan tribal music. This is the first time that the orchestra is performing in London and Tom is very excited.
“At the start, when my total budget was zero and I was driving musicians in my car back and forth from rehearsals and concerts, I had a piece of paper saying Olympia – Paris, Carnegie Hall – New York, Barbican – London. It wasn’t a dream list, it was a to-do list. The orchestra is my baby, the biggest thing I’ve done in my life, the most ongoing one, the one that I changed with the most and the one that influenced me and my career. Performing in a place like the Barbican in London is the next phase of our journey.”
The musicians will be pairing a gimbri, which is a primitive bass guitar made of wood and camelskin, with percussion instruments, a jazz pianist and a full orchestra, each element of which is completely at odds with the style. “The result is a harmonious arrangement with lots of colour and a taste of jazz, pop and rock,” explains Tom. “It was an experiment, and the result blew us all away. Last September were invited to Morocco to play this project. The idea of taking their musical style, changing it completely and then being invited to present it to them is something that I would never want to stop doing. Next is a concert on the moon!”
Tom grew up in Beersheva in the Negev in the south of Israel and is himself is a mix of cultures. “My father’s family are Iraqi but my mother’s side are Polish and English. My maternal grandmother came from Southport,” he says. “ I owe a lot of who I am today to the place I grew up in. I had many different communities around me in a very loving home where music was playing constantly. Both my mum (a former ballet dancer) and my dad (a journalist) saw music as playing a very important role in our lives. What differentiates me from many other people is that nobody ever explained to me the different types of music (Moroccan, Turkish, Arabic, Western for example) – I listened to it all ‘equally’. When I grew up and went to the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, I learned that Western classical music stood at a certain point and the rest of the music that I liked stood at a different point. And I could not grasp it. For me, the biggest power that we have as people living in the Middle East, in Jerusalem especially, is that all these influences live within us, within the sound of Jerusalem. So it became my mission to create a musical language that that connects all the genres together and weaves them into one musical style.”
The Jerusalem Orchestra East & West is recognised by the Ministry of Culture in Israel as the leading orchestra in the country, side by side with the Israel Philharmonic. Tom has been invited to establish orchestras in the same formation in Belgium, Morocco and Canada and has also conducted many different and varied ensembles – from the Israel Philharmonic to the Algerian Chaabi orchestra El Gusto.
Tom lives in Belgium with his Belgian wife Nicole, 39, who he met at a music festival in Cyprus, and their six-year-old son Adam. “We are bringing him up as Jewish – we make all the holidays and he speaks fluent Hebrew, but he knows Christmas as well.”
Maybe Tom will one day write a musical arrangement for a Christmas carol in Hebrew.
Jerusalem Orchestra East & West is at the Barbican Sunday 5 February 7.30pm www.barbican.co.uk
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