Ester Rada to perform at SJCC
Published 1:08 pm Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Soul singer Ester Rada is coming to Seattle Sunday, May 3 for a live performance at Mercer Island’s Stroum Jewish Community Center (SJCC).
Rada is an up-and-coming singer/song-writer blending funk, Ethiopian jazz and R&B, and lists Alicia Keys as one of her biggest champions, said Sarah Tobis, SJCC Marketing and Communications Manager.
Rada’s concert—one of four marquee performances of the SJCC’s year-round cultural arts program—will showcase the singer’s unique, cross-cultural retro-soul sound.
“Rada blends smoky jazz, groovy funk, retro soul and urban-hip R&B with cross-cultural sounds reflecting her Israeli birthplace and Ethiopian heritage,” according to an SJCC press release.
The concert takes place at 7 p.m. at the SJCC’s newly renovated cultural and performing arts venue, which seats 358, and will feature songs in English and Amharic from Rada’s most recent self-titled album, released last year.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Ester Rada to the SJCC stage,” said Pamela Lavitt, SJCC Cultural Arts Director. “Up-and-coming and unbelievably talented, Rada represents the caliber of performers we hope to deliver to the greater Seattle community and fulfill the SJCC’s mission of bringing people together to connect, enjoy and engage in art. You won’t want to miss this star on the rise.”
Rada was raised in a highly religious Ethiopian Jewish family in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Israel. Ester’s parents were part of a group of 80,000 Ethiopian Jews who were airlifted out of Sudan by the Israeli government as part of Operation Moses in 1984, a year before Ester was born. Rada’s upbringing gave her the drive to fulfill her dream of creating music.
Rada, who has opened for Alicia Keys, credits Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin as her musical influences, alongside Eryka Badu, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott. Critics describe Rada’s genre-mixing sound as “gracefully combining Ethio-Jazz, funk, soul and R&B, with mixed undertones of black grooves.”
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20-25 and can be purchased through the SJCC website. Rada’s music is available for purchase on iTunes.
