Mr. Haber, 43, refracts his exploration of Jewish musical identity through an ongoing attraction to Italian culture that began when he first traveled there at 18. Despite spending part of his childhood in Israel — he was born in the Netherlands but moved to the Middle East with his family when he was young — Mr. Haber became seriously interested in his Jewish heritage only after studying in Italy. Studying in Italy, Mr. Haber found mentors among the avant-garde. As he took courses in live electronics, he discovered texts from a memorial held in the 1950s for Milanese victims of the Holocaust. He set these to music in “Shema” (2000), which tethers its consideration of Jewish identity to the acts of remembering and listening; the title is the Hebrew word that begins one of the central prayers of Judaism.

Source: New York Times October 20, 2020 14:47 UTC