Preview: CMA VIVA! & Gala: The Idan Raichel Project

by Mike Telin

Recently voted Israel’s musician of the decade, musician, composer and producer Idan Raichel exemplifies the term World Music. On Saturday, February 16 beginning at 7:30 pm in Gartner Auditorium, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s VIVA! & Gala series presents The Idan Raichel Project. During the past ten years Raichel has worked with nearly 100 different musicians and singers from around the globe. “Each album has different bands and different styles,” Raichel explained during a telephone conversation from his home in Tel Aviv. “We’ll have a seven member group and will explore many songs and their rhythms.”

Born in Kfar Saba, Israel, in 1977 to a family with Eastern European roots, Idan Raichel began playing the accordion at the age of nine, and somehow always found himself attracted to Gypsy music and Tango. During high school he played keyboards and studied jazz and while serving in the military he joined the Army rock band and toured military bases performing covers of Israeli and European pop songs.