Achinoam Nini
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Known in Israel by her given name Achinoam Nini (Hebrew, אֲחִינֹעַם נִינִי or Ahīnō`am Nīnī), Noa is Israel's leading international concert and recording artist. Born in Tel Aviv in 1969 Noa lived in New York City from age 2 until her return to Israel alone at the age of 17. Her family is originally from Yemen. After serving the mandatory two years in the Israeli Army in a military entertainment unit, Noa studied music at the Rimon School where she met her long-time partner and collaborator Gil Dor.
Noa's strongest influences come from the singer-songwriters of the 60s, such as Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. These musical and lyrical sensibilities, combined with Noa's Yemenite roots and Gil Dor's strong background in jazz, classical, Country and rock, have created Noa and Gil's unique sound, manifested in hundreds of songs written and performed together. Noa plays percussion, guitar and piano. She is married to Dr. Asher Barak, they have two children, Ayehli and Enea, a dog Tina and live in Israel.
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[edit] Duets & Collaborations
Noa has toured and sang with rock superstar Sting, performed her song Child of man with Stevie Wonder for a CBS TV special in the USA, and shared the stage and microphone with many well-known artists, including Carlos Santana, Sheryl Crow, George Benson, Johnny Clegg, Zucchero, Peter Maffay, Pino Daniele, Rita Marcotulli,Rita Klienstien Massimo Ranieri, Carlo Fava, Florent Pagny, Jean Jacques Goldman, Khaled, Amine, Lokua Kanza, Jorge Drexler, Joan Manuel Serrat, Miguel Bose, Donovan, Maurane, Eric Serra, Pascal Obispo, Patrick Bruel, Mike Mainieri,Chava Albernstien, Gil Dor, Nini Band, Soils Squart, Al Di Meola and Bustan Avraham.
[edit] Concert Highlights
- Noa has performed in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, Olympia in Paris, Rome's Colosseum, The Barbican in London, Zellerbach Auditorium in San Francisco, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Montreaux Jazz Festival and Paleo Music festival in Switzerland, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, the North Sea Jazz Festival and Carre Auditorium in the Netherlands and the Water Festival in Stockholm, as well as numerous successful tours of major venues and festivals throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Japan.
- In 1994 Noa performed her version of Ave Maria for a live audience of 100,000 and a TV audience of millions at the culmination event of the Year of the family at the Vatican, witnessed by Pope John Paul II.
- Noa and Gil have performed on numerous occasions with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. They recorded an album with them during a live performance at Tel Aviv's prestigious Mann auditorium in 1997. Over the years their symphonic projects have multiplied, including concerts with Symphony Orchestras from Lille, Messina, Parma, Murcia, Firenze Symphony.
- In September 2003 Noa performed a vocal work entitled: L'isola de la Luce (after the Greek island on which it was performed) written by Nicola Piovani especially for her voice. The work was commissioned by the Cultural Olympics Committee in Athens.
- On May 1, 2004, Noa and Gil, together with the successful Israeli group Mayumana, gave an amazing joint performance between the two final games of the Euroleague basketball championship, broadcast to millions of television viewers around the world.
[edit] Awards
- In 1999 Noa was honored with the Crystal Award by the "World Economic Forum" in Davos, Switzerland, where she has performed together with Palestinian artists and participated in numerous panels dealing with peace in the Middle East and the role of art and artists in possibly bringing it about.
- In 2000, the Mayor of Melpignano awarded Noa and Nabil Salameh, Lebanese singer songwriter of the group "RadioDervish", honorary citizenship for their activity for peace.
- On April 3 2005 Noa became the first woman to receive the "Galileo Galilei" order medal from the "Grand Orient", the Italian arm of the Free Masons Oranization.
- On August 7 Noa received the prestigious "Gemona Seminar" prize for artistic excellence and her contribution to peace and understanding.
- Noa won the influential 'Critics' Award at the 2006 San Remo Festival in Italy, appearing with the Solis String Quartet [1] and Carlo Fava[2].
[edit] Soundtracks
In 1998, Noa recorded the part of Esmerelda in French for the original soundtrack of the multi-Platinum selling "Notre Dame de Paris". Her song 'Babel', written in English, French and Hebrew as theme song for the Gerarad Pullicino movie of the same name, topped the charts in France the following year.
Noa collaborated with French composer Eric Serra on two songs for film: 'the experience of love' from the James Bond film 'Goldeneye', and the song 'my heart calling' from the Luc Besson film "Joan of Arc".
In 2000, Noa recorded the theme song of "Life Is Beautiful", Roberto Benigni's Oscar award-winning film. Noa also wrote the lyrics to the song, together with Gil Dor. The song was recorded and released with the album "Blue Touches Blue", and also appears on the soundtrack to the film as well as on her album "Gold" in two versions.
[edit] Discography
Over the span of their 15 year career together, Gil and Noa have written and produced 4 hugely successful Israeli albums: "Achinoam Nini and Gil Dor Live", "Achinoam Nini and Gil Dor" (also known as "Rachel and Leah"), and "Achinoam Nini". Their four international albums are, "Noa" (produced by Pat Metheny) and "Calling" (produced by Rupert Hine) for Geffen records, "Blue Touches Blue" (produced by Mike Hedges) for Mercury records and "Now" (produced by Gil Dor & Yoad Nevo) for Universal Music. In addition, Noa has recorded a live album with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and a live cd and dvd with The Solis String Quartet. There are also various compilations available.
- Achinoam Nini and Gil Dor Live (July 1991)
- Achinoam Nini and Gil Dor (September 1993)
- Noa (March 1994)
- Calling (May 1996)
- Achinoam Nini (April 1997)
- Achinoam Nini & the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (April 1998)
- Blue Touches Blue (March 2000)
- First Collection (March 2001)
- Now (September 2002)
- Noa Gold (October 2003)
- Noa Live - DVD/Double CD with the Solis Quartet (October 2005)
[edit] Engagement for Peace
- Noa and Gil have collaborated frequently with Arab and Palestinian artists from around the world, including Khaled from Algeria, Nabil Salameh from Lebanon, Handallah from Nablus , Rim Banna from Nazareth, Amal Murkus from Kfar Yasif, and Mira Awad from Kfar Raameh. These collaborations enable the duo to express, musically, their belief in the power of communication and dialogue as a means of promoting peace and understanding.
- On Nov. 4th, 1995, Noa was on stage performing for an audience of 50,000 at the historic peace rally in Tel-Aviv just minutes before the late Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
- In May 2002, Noa took part in the first-ever concert at the Rome Colosseum, under the banner of "Time for Life- A Tribute for Peace". The event featured Ray Charles, Mercedes Sousa, Khaled, Nicola Piovani, and various artists from Afghanistan, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Africa and Ireland.
- On October 16, 2003, Noa was nominated "good will ambassador" for FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).
- In May 2004 Noa performed in "We Are the Future": a globally telecast fund raising concert for children in conflict areas. The event, which was produced by Quincy Jones and hosted by the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, featured an international line-up of stars and performers such as Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, Chris Tucker, Naomi Campbell and Serena Williams, Patti Austin, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli, Carmen Consoli, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Stomp, Take 6, Angelique Kidjo and others.
- On July 2 2005 Noa performed in Bono and Sir Bob Geldof's "Live 8" concert in front of hundreds of thousands of people that filled Rome's Circo Massimo and millions of TV viewers across the world.
- In September 2005, she performed at the Ambrosetti Forum which took place in Villa d'Este, Como, Italy, before distinguished participants such as Shimon Peres, Saeb Arekat and Amer Mussa.
- Noa and Gil have had various different ensembles since their early days as an acoustic duet but their most long lived musical relationship has been with the extraordinary percussionist Zohar Fresco. The three of them have played hundreds of concerts together all over the world. Recently Noa and Gil have added the Solis String Quartet to their stage show and that meeting has brought a new dimension to Noa and Gil's music.
