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WHAT DO PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT DEVORA GILA? "I LOVE your music and your interpretation; the Ruach, the lyricism... I feel spiritual, feminine...and honored when I listen..." -J. Weiss, University Heights, OH "The music on this CD has awakened something in my soul!! The music touches the heart and soul. It's clear that the artist is fully engaged with each song she sings and you will feel it when you listen." -Nancy Levinson "Devora Gila has a way of bringing to you her G-dly spirit. Listening to her music, you want to dance, sing, and play each song a thousand times." -Shira Taylor Gura, Boston, MA "Your music is beautiful and healing...So moving." -R.L. Leigh,Lakewood NJ "Devora Gila's songs put you on such a spiritual high... I waited for months for the release of her CD, 'Hodu Lashem'." -Abby Dishi, Allon Shvut, Israel "Devora Gila's music touches my soul deeply and inspires my own creativity... I find myself singing her songs throughout the day.-" Anonymous, Bat Ayin, Israel 1. HODU LASHEM/Reviews 2. About the Performer 3. Workshops 4. Subscribe to TAMBOURINE newsletter 5. Booking 1. HODU LASHEM Described by the Jewish World Review as a "religious female Joan Baez-type" singer-songwriter, Devora Gila is paving a new path in the world of Jewish music. HODU LASHEM paints a rich tapestry of soothing melodies, meditative and danceable rhythms, and inspiring spiritual themes. HODU LASHEM features Devora Gila's angelic voice in a high-quality production of original music. Co-produced and arranged by Naor Carmi, the album utilizes a variety of styles from Israel-- traditional Middle-Eastern, modern, Chassidic, classical guitar and Spanish influenced, and American contemporary-easy. The transcendent niggunim were inspired by a creative process she has developed called "Meditative Singing". HODU LASHEM also features a wide range of talented Israeli musicians, including accomplished guitarist Gavriel Hason, Asaf Shirazi on Latin percussion, and virtuoso cellist Doron Toister of The Israeli Philharmonic. A regular on the playlist of Staten Island's WSIA radio (For Women Only), HODU LASHEM is making its way around the globe. And it's creating an intimate spiritual musical community among women by connecting us all through the power of song. REVIEWS OF HODU LASHEM: "Very beautiful" -Rockin' Rebbetzin Michelle Garner, WSIA 88.9 FM, Staten Island, NY "Each song is beautifully composed and sung...This album uplifts the heart and inspires the soul. Looking forward to more!" -Leora Silberstein, Israel National Radio "...one of the hippest religious recording around" - Jewish Music WebCenter "Devora Gila has talent...The arrangements and performances here are skilled and flavorful,... innovative." -Jerusalem Post "...a sweet, wonderful voice..." -Jewish Music WebCenter "Devora Gila's music touches my soul deeply and inspires my own creativity... I find myself singing her songs throughout the day." -Anonymous, artist "Perfect, prayerful, refreshing, full of love...I love everything about it! -TZ, musician and composer "Exquisite." -Toby Klein Greenwald, Director of women's theater "Devora Gila's songs put you on such a spiritual high... I waited for months for the release of her CD, 'Hodu Lashem'." -Anonymous "(Devora Gila has) a remarkable voice range." -Anonymous "'Hodu Lashem' tracks the journey of a soul. We hear a voice that belongs to the realm of superstars ... but the richness and depth of the Torah integrated into DG's life makes this transcendent, far beyond any music in the pop world. Tender, passionate, uplifting, these songs are polished jewels. This is the voice of a woman who has emerged through suffering to ecstatic joy, from emptiness to fullness..." -CRS, musician and composer "Your music is beautiful and healing...So moving. Hope you will be zoche to capture and share many more melodies. --Rivkah-Leah Leigh,Lakewood NJ 2. ABOUT THE PERFORMER Songwriting since the age of twelve, Devora Gila (nee Vicki Wiseblatt) admits: "I used to be a sap for pop ballads and love songs, but now my music is more divinely inspired." Many of the melodies on "Hodu Lashem" were inspired by a process she has been developing called "Meditative Singing". As a teenager, Devora Gila travelled throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia as a clarinetist with the Long Island Youth Orchestra. She won local, state and national honors for clarinet as well as dramatic, poetic and prose performance. In her mid-twenties, she performed with an award-winning political theater troupe, produced an album in Spanish which made its debut in the Caribbean, and sang back-up vocals in Boston's folk scene for singer-songwriter Pat Burtis, showcasing at the Bitter End in New York's East Village. But now the 30-something native Long Islander has traded in the thrill of clubs and mixed crowds for the spiritually uplifting "high" of women-only performances. Former Kripalu yoga instructor and martial arts student, Devora Gila earned a B.A. in Linguistics from Harvard College, where she performed with a Renaissance choir, the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and hosted a jazz program on WHRB radio. While earning an M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College, she continued her interest in radio broadcast as a DJ for a Spanish music show on WRMC. She has studied various vocal traditions and techniques, including classical Indian singing with reknown Hindustani singer and composer Warren Senders, jazz, and "Spiritual Singing" with Barry Harris, who teaches a methodology developed by faculty of the Metropolitan House of Opera for vocal repair and retraining. Her love of Spanish language and culture led her to a brief career as a Spanish Teacher at George School, a respected coed-Quaker boarding school in Newtown, PA, and at Maimonidies High School in Brookline, MA. But now Devora Gila is putting aside her former career in foreign language in order to follow her passion for teaching, writing, and performing music. "Everyone can sing, and every woman has a divine inner song that is yearning to be released into the world in a holy way," she asserts. "I find the apparent restrictions of 'Kol Ishah' to be liberating. It creates an intimate spiritual musical community among women and connects us through the power of song." 3. WORKSHOPS SINGING WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN This class combines Torah learning on kol (voice), shir, (song) and niggun (melody); singing as meditation, introduction to improvisation, and Spiritual Singing vocal technique, designed to help you sing more freely, reveal the inner beauty your voice, and connect more deeply to your neshama. CREATIVE HEALING WORKSHOP In a supportive environment, we will use creativity as the key to unlock our great potential for healing, self-expression personal growth, and self-discovery. Using Music, Meditation, Art, Movement, Creative Visualization, and Writing, we will release some of the blocks that restrict our energy flow on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. Chassidut and Kabbalah ground our journey in the Torah tradition. MEDITATIVE MOVEMENT If you like yoga,then you'll love Meditative Movement: The Jewish Answer to yoga. Gain flexibility in body and mind, strengthen muscles, cleanse internal organs, while integrating what our Torah tradition has to say about physical fitness. CREATIVE DRUMMING Using tradition rhythms as a springboard, learn basic hand drumming technique, and symbolism which connects rhythm to the sounds in our natural world. Through pairwork and improvisation, make creative connections between the songs of Tehillim and the beat of the drum. SPIRITUAL SINGING Learn vocal technique to free your voice, reveal the inner beauty of your voice, and connect more deeply to your neshama. Non-operatic, but originally developed as vocal therapy at the Metropolitan House of Opera. SONGWRITING FOR THE JEWISH SOUL Learn to hear your soul's inspiration, channel it through and bring it our into the world to share with others. Basic melody and lyric-writing techniques, and how to find that special "hook". 4. To subscribe to TAMBOURINE, a bi-monthly online newsletter on Jewish women's music and spirituality, send e-mail from this website. 5. BOOKING Please contact Devora Gila through this CDBaby website. Track List: 1. Shir HaMa'alot 2. Hashem Melech 3. Beloved 4. Ki Karov 5. Serve Thee 6. Sea and Sand 7. Et Kashti 8. Hear My Laughter 9. Infinite Wonder 10. Eyn K'elokeynu 11. Hodu Lashem Other Genres:
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