Sarah Aroeste
| Sarah Aroeste | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 1976 Washington, D.C. |
| Genres | Ladino music, Sephardic music, world fusion, indie rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Aroeste Music |
| Associated acts |
Frank London Tamir Muskat Shai Bachar Y-Love Diwon |
| Website | SarahAroeste.com |
Sarah Aroeste is a Manhattan-basedJewish Ladino musician. Her music is often referred to as “feminist Ladino rock.”
Aroeste grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. Her family roots can be traced to the formerly vibrant Greek Jewish community of Salonika, which was almost completely destroyed in the Holocaust. In 1927, her family built a synagogue in Salonika, which today remains one of the only synagogues there. Her family immigrated to the United States from Macedonia and Greece in the early 20th century.
Aroeste trained in classical opera singing at Westminster Choir College and Yale University. She attended the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in 1997, first learning traditional Ladino songs while studying with Nico Castel.
In the late-90s, Aroeste was working for the National Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York, where she created The New Jewish Musics Initiative. She was disappointed that, while there was a revival of Ashkenazi klezmer music, there was no similar revival for Sephardic music. Unable to find any modern Ladino music, she started her own Ladino rock band in 2001. At the time, there were very few people playing Ladino music. Born Sarah Silverman, she adopted her mother’s maiden name when she began performing as a Ladino musician. Her goal was to obtain a wider, younger audience for Ladino music, by rearranging the traditional music of her ancestors to give it a hip, modern spin. Aroeste has been at the forefront of the contemporary Ladino music revival.
Developed by Spanish Jews following their expulsion from Spain, the Ladino language dates back to the 15th century. Because it is rooted in the dispersal of its people, Ladino music is not from one particular region, but rather from a variety of geographies and ethnicities. Its origins lie in Castilian Spanish, with shades of Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Turkish, Greek and other languages. As of 2012, the Ladino language, also known as Judeo-Spanish, is spoken by less than 100,000 people, the majority of whom reside in Israel.
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