Yoni's new album, "Fragments," is a collection of original and traditional music surrounding my Iraqi-Jewish identity. With lyrics in Arabic, Hebrew, English, and Yiddish, the music utilizes Arabic modes and rhythms with an ensemble of traditional Arabic instruments to grapple with the fragmentation of ancestry and memory. This project offers visibility and recognition for the many unseen Middle Eastern Jews in America, while making room for listeners of all backgrounds to take something from my message of resilience and healing.

Yoni Avi Battat is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer specializing in contemporary and traditional Jewish music from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He maintains an active performance schedule across the country, playing violin, viola, and oud (middle-eastern lute) in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects spanning a wide range of styles. Yoni has performed across the United States, Canada, Israel, Portugal, and Italy with a variety of artists and ensembles such as Earth, Wind and Fire, Yair Dalal, Shai Tsabari, Nava Tehila, VSNY, and Di Gasn Trio. Most recently, he’s been touring nationally as an actor and violinist with the Tony Award-winning musical, “The Band’s Visit.” In 2015, Yoni founded his own Yiddish-Jazz band called Two Shekel Swing, which has since released their debut album “Pocket Change,” performed in Toronto’s Jewish Music Week, and opened for Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird, amongst other public appearances. Yoni works as a song leader, facilitating musical prayer in Jewish communities, and is a fellow with Hadar’s Rising Song Institute. Yoni studied classical viola at Brandeis University (B.A.) and Boston University (M.M), and traditional Middle-Eastern musical traditions in Jerusalem. www.yonibattat.com