Shye Ben-Tzur is an acclaimed Israeli composer, producer and performer based in North India for the past decade, playing Rajasthani rhythms with Western sounds. He is a Hebrew Qawwali singer.

After attending a concert in Israel by the Indian classical musicians Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Zakir Hussain, he became interested in Indian music, which brought him into contactwith Qawwali. He went to Ajmer in India, Rajasthan’s most important Sufi shrine, where he trained and collaborated with the qawwali musicians of Ajmer. Qawwali is a form of ecstatic Muslim devotional music.

In 2004, he performed at Jahan-e-Khusrau, the prestigious international Sufi music festival held in New Delhi. He also performed with his group at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2009, and has toured in Israel.

His debut album Heeyam (“Supreme Love”) was recorded in India, Israel, and USA. It was released in 2003, and earned great praise. In Heeyam, Shye worked with traditional Sufi Qawwali singers, who have been learning his compositions and poetry, and sung them in Hebrew. From his personal life experiences Ben-Tzur has succeeded to bring his own ancient culture alive into a unique cross cultural work. Besides working with the Qawwali communities across India, in the past few years Shye has also been collaborating with different folk musicians from the Rajasthan desert.

“Shye Ben-Tzur, an Israeli flautist, vocalist and composer, enraptured the crowd. This was a clear example of how music and art crosses political and religious boundaries, giving credence to the festival’s ambitions.” (Songlines magazine review from Shye’s performance at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2009)

The album Shye Ben-Tzur – Shoshan will be released on EarthSync later this year. Shoshan is a natural continuation in Shye’s exhilarating career, a cross-cultural mix of passions, genres, languages and irresistible beats. He is the Hebrew Qawwali singer of today, spreading a message of love and understanding where-ever he goes.