2022
ASF Pomegranate Achievement Award for Music
Biography
Multidisciplinary artist and musician Neta Elkayam creates music and art inspired by Jewish artists of North Africa, linking their spirit and roots to contemporary global arts and music scenes, while integrating Andalusian, Amazigh and Mediterranean influences, rock, pop, and jazz.
Neta has performed her musical creations on many stages around the world, collaborating with well-known artists, such as: Maurice al-Madioni, Nino Bitton, Abir al-Abd, Dudu Tessa, Jerusalem East and West Orchestra,
Les Femmes de Tétouan, and Symphonyat Orchestra from Morocco. She has appeared at events and festivals including Essaouira’s Festival des Andaloisies Atlantique and International Film Festival Marrakech in Morocco, GWMF Gibraltar, the Krakow Jewish Festival, the Institut du monde arabe Paris, and the 20th NYSJFF’s Opening Night honoring Pomegranate Lifetime Achievement Awardee André Azoulay, Senior Councillor to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
A Key School of Arts honors graduate, Neta was awarded the 2017 ACUM Music Prize and the Sami Michael Award for Social Equality in 2019, as well as the Moroccan Salam Contemporary Arts Forum prize in 2021. She was nominated for an Ophir Oscar Award for her leading role in the 2019 musical film Red Fields (NYSJFF 2020).
Neta more recently starred, alongside Amit Hai Cohen, in director Kamal Hachkar’s new documentary In Your Eyes I See My Country(2020), a follow-up to Tinghir-Jerusalem: The Echoes of the mellah(16th NYSJFF).