The Hibba Orchestra brings to the fore the creativity of original Jewish Oriental music, from different Oriental Jewish communities. Members of the ensemble play both modern and traditional instruments, host diverse Israeli musicians and perform with them original and unique arrangements of piyyutim and authentic Israeli songs. On stage with the orchestra in this concert is the paytan Daniel Saadon, who learnt to sing piyyutim from his synagogue cantor father and, as no paytan before him, now mixes them with Arabic and Tunisian melodies.
The development of this creative music and the singing of piyyutim in Israel has produced a significant group of artists, including Jewish composers from Eastern countries and contemporary Israeli musicians. Some are Jewish musicians who emigrated to Israel from Eastern countries while others are contemporary Israeli artists who have adopted and perform authentic Oriental musical genres. Together, these two groups of musicians have created a vast corpus of Israeli-Jewish repertoire whose roots lie in authentic Eastern music, and they have created a genre which is entirely Israeli artistic music. The Hibba Orchestra is the first Israeli orchestra that devotes itself entirely to this genre.
The orchestra was founded and is directed by Elad Gabbay, musician, paytan, and Qanun and Oud player. Gabbay, a Jerusalem musician, was raised on the eastern-Jewish piyyut tradition. He has a degree in music from Bar Ilan University and is an expert in Arabic, Turkish and Oriental-Jewish music. He is a senior lecturer in the fields of piyyut and Israeli art music at various academic institutions and musical centers.
- Amit Sharon – Percussion and Vocals
- Yehuda Ashash – Bass
- Gil Shapira – Guitar and Vocals
- Avimeir Tzur – Vocals
- Elad Gabbay – Qanun and Vocals
- Daniel Saadon – Lead Singer
- Lihu Baniel – Wind instruments
- Yaara Beeri – Kamancheh
- Or Bareli – Lyre
- David Cohen Nehemya - Oud
