Our Story | The Band in Concert| Ensemble Member Biographies

“The buoyant, life-affirming, sweetly acoustic music of Israeli-born Mendilow incorporates influences from across the Middle East, South America and beyond. It's a folk music of hope and affirmation, sophisticated in its delivery but easily accessible to listeners anywhere. ”  —Chicago Tribune

“This isn’t for quirky ears, it’s for jaded ears that need to be shaken awake with
something substantially different that keeps the interest on the beam throughout. Delightfully different, even when it seems like it might be familiar. ”
—Chris Spector/Midwest Record

“This is, to folk, what Bela Fleck is to Foggy Mountain Breakdown. This is unusual and exciting.”— Philadelphia Folk Song Society

In its newest touring program, Songs of Imagined Migrations: The Guy Mendilow Band’s Ladino Project, the Guy Mendilow Band breathes new life into centuries-old music from the Jewish communities of Smyrna, Salonica, Jerusalem and Sarajevo, sung in the Judeo-Spanish Ladino. Colorful tales of sailors seduced by sirens at sea, murder, intrigue, fantastic dreams and the treachery of kings and queens abound in arrangements that go from gritty and spare to sweepingly cinematographic, and through a presentation that is at once transporting and down-to-earth in its humour and personal charm.

What happens when a music that is the product of hundreds of years of migrations continues to travel, landing in such unlikely places as Appalachia or the streets of Salvador in Northeastern Brazil? Drawing on the dynamic world music expertise of each of its players, the charismatic quintet explores a re-imagined world of Ladino music, making an ancient music fresh for modern audiences. The result is a thrilling blend of Sephardi tempered with Brazilian street beats and blues in vibrant musical storytelling awash with warm vocal harmonies, intricate textures and spellbinding rhythms.

The group’s message is coming through loud and clear. The Guy Mendilow Band performs in theaters such as New York’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center and at some of the US’s most established festivals like the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Chicago World Music Festival and Musikfest. Mendilow’s innovative workshops, residencies and teacher trainings, focusing on improvisation as a tool for communication, have led to ongoing collaborations with cutting-edge international social justice organizations like Seeds of Peace and to invitations to present at schools and conferences across the United States and Brazil.

(Photo Credit: Craig Harris)