The Jerusalem International Oud Festival is one of the most important and exciting cultural initiatives in Jerusalem, enriching the city’s cultural scene every year with new sounds of distant cultures, deepening our familiarity with sounds close to us, and protecting sounds that were on the verge of disappearing. The Oud Festival is a unique celebration of cultural diversity through music organised by Confederation House, and the 2011 festival will take place between November 10-19.

Oud and Fiddle Duo by Avital Pinnick, on Flickr

The 2011 Jerusalem International Oud Festival will include such diversity as the songs of the Kurdish minority in Turkey, sounds from the Mediterranean basin, fruits of the work of the finest Israeli musicians, both Jewish and Arab, and tributes to the great musicians who are no longer with us, but whose enormous contributions still enrich our lives including legendary Greek rembetiko vocalist Rosa Eskenazi. The 2011 Festival’s gala opening will be performed by Meir Banai, who combines rock, ethnic music and traditional piyyut.

The 2011 festival will take place at venues across Jerusalem: the Jerusalem Theater, Khan Theater, Hirsh Hall in Beit Shmuel, and, of course Confederation House. Tickets and further information on the daily program can be found in the event program.

Oh, and by the way, the Oud for which the festival is named, is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African Middle Eastern music. You can read more about this on Wikipedia.