Shem Tov Levy

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For Shem Tov Levy, his work on the soundtrack for Desperados Square, for which he was awarded the Israeli Oscar in 2000, was the gentle nudge that took him back to his childhood. Beni Torati, the film’s director, inundated Levy with CDs of Persian, Turkish, and Arabic music. This music took him back to the sounds of his childhood, to the Balkan roots of his home, to the Yemenite Shearim neighborhood - a complete mesh of places, atmosphere, people, and music that made up the rich cultural and ethnic ambience in which he grew up. These sounds were the starting point for the Circle of Dreams album, his first experience of an album made up entirely of ethnic music and his first attempt at total immersion in an old-new world of music of which he had previously had almost no experience. Shem Tov Levy was born in 1950. As a child, he studied flute with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and composition and orchestration at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. In his early days as a musician, he played with Tslil Mekuvan (Tuned Tone), Ketsat Aheret (No Names), and Sheshet, three ensembles which, in the 1970s, helped redefine the boundaries of Israeli music, from which many of Israelis leading musicians emerged. In addition to a varied solo career - he has recorded five albums of original songs and another three albums of instrumental music - Levy works as a writer and arranger with the cream of Israel’s contemporary singers. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By

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