Rim Banna

Palestinian vocalist and composer Rim Banna has built her path by championing the respect and dignity of her people through singular artistic skill and principle. She pursued vocal and conducting training at Moscow’s High Institute for Music, widely recognized as one of the most demanding conservatories anywhere. Following the issue of two live albums, Jafra (1985) and Your Tears, Mother (1986), along with six years of intensive coursework, she completed her studies at the High Institute in 1991. In that same year she wed Ukrainian musician and fellow alumnus Leonid Alexeienko, and the pair settled in Nazareth. Back in her homeland, Banna issued a set of Palestinian children’s songs then vanishing from memory; The Dream (1993) rescued and revived that endangered body of work. She kept locating Palestinian poetry and pairing it with music rooted in tradition, earning recognition as a cultural emblem among Israeli Arabs. After attaining local renown, she gained global notice through her contribution to the 2003 multi-artist collection Lullabies from the Axis of Evil. That project assembled women vocalists from countries labeled enemies of freedom by George W. Bush, each performing a traditional lullaby paired with English-language artists to share their heritage with Western listeners. Her next record, The Mirrors of My Soul, drew worldwide listeners and ranked among 2005’s most celebrated Arabic crossover releases. Banna’s stature as both cultural advocate and political voice has kept expanding. Her 2006 album This Was Not My Story appeared on European charts among that year’s leading world-music titles.