Maya Raviv
Maya Raviv of Tel Aviv, Israel, is an actress and dancer as well as a composer and singer. She recently dedicated a year of her life to interfaith work through music, traveling with a violinist on peace missions throughout the Middle East and United States and performing Hebrew and Arabic prayers for people of all faiths and traditions. During that year she produced and recorded her first solo album, To the Eagle, a collection of eight Hebrew prayers — all with a universal message — arranged for voice and violin. Harvard University purchased it for its permanent Judaica collection.
Ms. Raviv is currently working toward a master’s degree in composition with the composer Edward Knight at Oklahoma City University. A onetime dance student, she also earned a degree in vocal performance from Hed College of Music in Tel Aviv.
FROM THE COMPOSER
"Echad"
Ms. Raviv combines Jewish and Muslim music and tradition in this composition so that the descendants of the two sons of Abraham can recognize each other as brothers and sisters, praying together for each other in a sacred celebration of musical lines, multilingual sounds and most of all the shared experience of connecting with the divine in the truth of our oneness.
Our God and the God of our ancestors,
Rule the whole world with your majesty
And ascend beyond the earth entire in your grandeur
And let the pristine might shine through all the residence
of the universe,
Your land.
Then all which is animated will know You are
animating it
And all which is created will grasp You are creating it
And all that has breath will declare:
God is One and God’s name is One.
These words, sung in Hebrew and Arabic, by two young friends — a Jewish woman from Israel and a Muslim man from Morocco — bring into being a new spirituality in which the descendants of the two sons of Abraham recognize each other as brethren and pray together for each other in a sacred celebration.
... Bless us, Eternal One, all of us as one, with
light of your presence ...
One is our God
One is our Creator
One is our Supreme Being
One is our Salvation
ONE
I was born and raised in Israel to a family with deep Jewish roots. When I came to Oklahoma to study music, I found myself surrounded by many new forms of spirituality, and though they were all interesting, I was most fascinated with the opportunity to connect safely and freely with Arab people of the Muslim faith. It was the miraculous combination of music and tradition that brought us together and opened the way for the connection to be made. In a house in Oklahoma City, we started singing prayers together, gently realizing how close our traditions really were; the musical lines, the sounds of the languages and most of all the powerful experience of praying and connecting with the divine. In that sacred space, oneness was no longer just a belief, but a tangible living truth. Echad celebrates this experience and expands it from two individuals to their nations and to the whole world. Hebrew and Arab, men and women, East and West, enemy and friend all come together in a joyous tribal celebration of realized oneness. -Maya Raviv
