Yitzhak Isaac Levy
Yitzhak Isaac Levy was an Israeli singer-songwriter, musicologist and composer in Judeo-Spanish. He also worked as director of a radio program and was an author of various works on musicology.Biography
Isaac Levy was born in Manisa, near Izmir, to a Sephardic family and lived with his parents in Palestine until the age of three. He studied the Conservatory of Music in Jerusalem, and in Tel Aviv at the Samuel Rubin Israel Academy of Music where he developed his baritone. Isaac Levy composed music for Biblical verses and hymns written by poets of the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, such as Judah Halevi, Ibn Gabirol, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and others.
In 1954 he founded for the Israeli public radio, Kol Yisrael, a series of broadcasts in the Ladino language. With his wife, Kohava Levy, Isaac Levy had a daughter, Yasmin Levy who continues his musical tradition. Kohava Levy is also a singer of Sephardic songs and is a skilled interpreter of Sephardic music. In 1963 he was nominated as director of the section of ethnic music of Kol Yisrael.
