Yasmin Levy with Omar Faruk Tekbilek

February 16 2012, 7:30pm

On February 16, Pace University’s inaugural Pace Presents season at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in Lower Manhattan continues with a performance by Israeli singer-songwriter Yasmin Levy. Levy, who sings in the Judeo-Spanish language Ladino, combines traditional Sephardic styles with Flamenco and Mediterranean influences to create music.

Her latest album, Sentir, is the fourth since her 2005 debut to be recorded in Ladino, a language that, while spoken widely throughout medieval Spain and the Mediterranean, is spoken by fewer than 200,000 people today. Her commitment to the preservation of the language through her songs—which also incorporate influences from the Ladino diaspora in the Middle East and Latin America—is a passion she inherited from her father Yitzhak Levy, a renowned composer and scholar.

For her performance at Pace Presents, Levy will be joined on stage by Turkish multi-instrumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek, known throughout the world for his virtuoso playing of such traditional middle-eastern instruments as the ney, oud, saz, darbuka, baglama and zurna. The two will collaborate on material spanning Levy’s discography (including songs from her upcoming album, to be released later this year) as well as a duet of “La Rosa Enflorece,” a song popular in both Ladino and Turkish cultures. Levy will also join Tekbilek on some of his own material.