Few artists launch careers with involvement from both superstar rapper Kanye West and Carnegie Hall favorite Isaac Stern, yet that distinction belongs to Israeli-born hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari. When her family could no longer fund violin lessons, Stern personally supplied the young prodigy with an instrument. She earned a place in the Israeli Army String Quartet, discovered jazz, and relocated to the United States to attend the Mannes School of Music in New York City. Immediately after completing her studies she issued her first album, Sahara, on the Half Note label in 1999; critics praised the assured range of the new violinist. Her 2003 follow-up, Temple of Beautiful, captured live at the Blue Note Club, strengthened her reputation as an emerging jazz artist.
Ben-Ari’s musical curiosity crossed every boundary, however, and jazz alone soon proved too narrow. Working as a studio musician, she contributed to sessions for Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, Patti LaBelle, Joe, Wyclef Jean, and others, eventually connecting with Kanye West. West engaged her to compose, produce, arrange, and perform every string part on his debut album The College Dropout. The same partnership extended to Twista’s hit single “Overnight Celebrity” and its video, which placed Ben-Ari prominently on BET and MTV. Subsequent tour appearances with West, along with spots on BET’s 106 & Park and Rap City, introduced audiences to this fresh hip-hop presence and paved the way for her third album, The Hip Hop Violinist, issued by Universal in 2005. In 2006 she co-founded Gedenk, a nonprofit dedicated to combating anti-Semitism and advancing Jewish Holocaust education. Her 2007 single “Symphony of Brotherhood,” which incorporated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, rose to number two on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart. In 2011 she became the first Israeli recipient of the Martin Luther King Award, presented by President Shimon Peres. That year Michelle Obama invited her to the White House as a “Remarkable Woman,” and she returned in 2012 to perform for President Barack Obama.
