The Jewish News

of Northern California

Victoria Hanna creates songs from modern and ancient Hebrew texts. (Photo/Eric Portman)

CULTURE > ARTS

Eccentric Israeli artist Victoria Hanna

brings spells ancient and modern to
Berkeley
BY LAURA PAULL | OCTOBER 20, 2017

V ictoria Hanna was just a small child living in the ultra-Orthodox community of
Jerusalem when she discovered that her voice could set her free.

Afflicted with a stutter, Hanna was confined to a lonely state while uncomprehending
children laughed at her. It was in one such schoolyard situation where she jumped up
onto a large rock and, with all her heart, sent her very musical voice up to the God she
believed would save her. The sound she made silenced the taunts and released her to
a life in music and the performing arts. After finding that the stutter ceased when she
sang or performed theatrically, she was motivated to continue expressing herself
musically.

Though later in life she would have some differences with the restrictions on
Orthodox Jewish women, she says the action she took at age 6 or 7 was a gift from the
Orthodox world, the strong belief that there is something above us, and only He can
help me, by calling Him through song, through prayer.

Hanna today is a singer, composer, teacher and video artist who performs in Israel
onstage, at schools, official ceremonies and important national occasions, and for
international audiences at festivals. Her unique angle is that she creates songs from
modern and ancient Hebrew texts, adapting musical styles from traditional Jewish
music to new music and hip-hop.

Victoria Hanna - The Aleph-bet song (Hosha'ana) O cial video

This past summer she sang at the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah Games, an
international Jewish athletic event held every four years in Israel. On Oct. 28 shell be
performing at the World Music Expo in Poland.
The daughter of an Iranian Jewish mother and an Iraqi Jewish father by way of Egypt,
she is equally comfortable with Arab and mainstream Israeli music another line her
music crosses.

When my father, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, was ironing his white shirt for Shabbat, he
was listening to Egyptian music. Like a lot of Sephardic Jews in Israel, this is the music
that I heard growing up, Hanna said.

Earlier this year, UC Berkeley music professor Francesco Spagnolo found some of
Hannas performances on YouTube and reached out to her. As curator of the Magnes
Collection in Berkeley, Spagnolo has collaborated with Israeli artists through the
Schusterman Visiting Artist Program of the Israel Institute. Watching Hanna perform
her haunting songs that lie at the intersection of the ancient and utterly contemporary,
he knew she was someone with whom he wanted to work.

With support from the Schusterman program, UC Berkeley students and the public
will be able to participate in a collaboration that explores new territory in Jewish
culture. As the Magnes fall 2017 resident artist, Hanna will co-teach Spagnolos new
course, Jewish Nightlife: Poetry, Music, and Ritual Performance from Renaissance
Italy to Contemporary Israel. The course explores the cultural impact of the arrival of
both Kabbalah, a branch of Jewish mysticism, and coffee, of all things, to Venice in
the roaring 1570s, Spagnolo said.

Coffee allowed people to stay up at night, and propelled the invention of new Jewish
rituals based on the nighttime singing of Hebrew poetry, that have impacted many
ideas and practices to this very day, he said.

As the courses music lab component, Hanna and the students will develop a
performance series that will be open to the public. It was Spagnolos idea that Hanna
use some of the Hebrew amulets held in the Magnes collection as a creative source.

Historically, amulets physical objects, paper or parchment were designed to

protect the vulnerable from harm.

They were older versions of health insurance or homeowner policies, but also
gateways to connect this world with another dimension, Spagnolo explained. They
are portals.
Used extensively in the Jewish mystical tradition, amulets featured texts including
biblical verses, psalms, divine names, and invocations of angels and the biblical
patriarchs and matriarchs. In inviting Hanna for the artist residency, he asked her to
examine the museums collection of amulets and attempt to use them as if they were
musical scores.

Victoria performs texts, Spagnolo said. She doesnt sing from written music; she
connects text with sound, and music comes out. She improvises and composes.

The free performance series, Magic Spells, will feature a different amulet on display
during each concert; ultimately Spagnolo and Hanna hope to weave these pieces
together into a longer operatic work. Audiences will have the opportunity to witness
the creative process, Spagnolo says, by attending any of these performances (which
are, in effect, the undergraduate humanities course).

I think Im really privileged to meet Francesco because he understands in a deep way

what I do and his instincts are so clear in everything he proposed, Hanna said. For
me art was a lifesaver. It was the place where the conflicts in my life made sense. The
dark places and loneliness became a gift. Thats why I know that when you work with
young people, its important to let them express themselves in their own way. This is
some of my message: to use your handicaps, your difficulties, for your own benefit.

Magic Spells, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Oct. 24Dec. 5 at the Magnes, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley.
Free. For information, click here. Hannas rst CD, based on ancient Hebrew scripts, will be
available for purchase.

Laura Paull

Laura Paull is a freelance writer living in Point Richmond.

Tags: Magnes, Victoria Hanna, magic

 RELIGION
Growing up frum: Observant
teens navigate their way She's pushing the boundaries of
through famously liberal Bay Hasidic tradition
Area

FILM CULTURE

Orthodox lmmaker's risky Jews who ed Nazis for

Wedding Plan Hollywood

0 Comments jweekly 1 Login

Sort by Best
Recommend Share

Start the discussion

LOG IN WITH OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ?

Be the rst to comment.

ALSO ON JWEEKLY

Will Dershowitz talk at UC Berkeley be
allowed to go ahead?
4 comments 25 days ago
Masha Merkulova This is a most ridiculous
argument for putting stops into having a pro-
Israel speaker on
Todays Zionism isnt as easy as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
1 comment 20 days ago
Earnest Comment There is no Zionism.
There is Israel. In israel there live real people
who are just

Five takeaways from a new survey of Doing nothing on gun violence is not an
Modern Orthodox Jews option
1 comment 20 days ago 8 comments 17 days ago
AvatarEarnest Comment This is but another of AvatarSoa Shtil 15 sick individuals killed 3
another string if dishonest polls run by lefty thousand people on 9/11. A sick individual
american Jews. killed scored in

Subscribe d Add Disqus to your siteAdd DisqusAdd Privacy