Miri Ben-Ari
| Miri Ben-Ari | |
|---|---|
Miri Ben-Ari in 2004
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Miri Ben-Ari |
| Also known as |
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| Born |
December 4, 1978 Ramat Gan, Israel |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Violinist |
| Instruments | Violin |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Labels | Universal |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | |
Miri Ben-Ari (Hebrew: מירי בן-ארי; born December 4, 1978) is an Israeli-American violinist. She lives in New Jersey.
Ben-Ari was born in Tel Aviv,Israel. She grew up playing classical music; she started training at age 5 and at age 12, she was presented with a violin by Isaac Stern. During her mandatory Israeli military service, she was chosen to play for the Israeli Army String Quartet. During her stint in the Israeli military, she heard an album by Charlie Parker and immediately fell in love with jazz; she later said "My soul was sold." Following her service, she moved from Israel to New York in hopes of using her classical training on stage and attended the Jazz department at The New School, but was expelled after two semesters due to poor attendance caused by Ben-Ari playing gigs to pay the rent.
She released her first solo CD Sahara in 1999.
Her persistence earned her an appearance on BET's 106 & Park; the viewer response netted her a return visit a few weeks later. Her performances caught the eye of Jay-Z, who invited her to play as one of the headliners of New York radio station Hot 97's annual Summer Jam concert in 2001, where she netted a standing ovation. Around the same time, a mutual friend introduced Ben-Ari to Wyclef Jean, who invited her to perform with him at his Carnegie Hall show, the first by a hip-hop artist at the venue.
In 2003, she released her second CD Temple of Beautiful, and followed that up with a live CD the following year entitled Live at the Blue Note.
She won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song in 2005 as one of the co-writers of Kanye West's Jesus Walks. In 2005, she released her fourth CD and first to focus on hip-hop style, entitled The Hip-Hop Violinist. As part of the promotion for it, she was part of Reebok's "I Am What I Am" global advertising campaign; Reebok was also part of the video for the first single from the CD, "We Gonna Win".
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