NYC’s unique jazz prayer service, Sundays at 5 since 1964. This is the second of two Jazz Vespers dates in October 2022 where Meg Okura is the leader. Ronen Itzik recently appeared at Jazz Vespers with The Ambivert Trio.

ABOUT MEG OKURA (VIOLIN)

Jazz violinist Meg Okura is “a complete artist and a major one at that, who is unafraid to experiment and weave many musical worlds into one.” (All About Jazz) Native of Tokyo and formerly a concert violinist, Okura toured Asia as the soloist and concertmaster of the Asian Youth Orchestra as a teen. She moved to the U.S. in 1992 and made her solo concerto debut at Kennedy Center with the late Alexander Schneider’s New York String Orchestra. She then earned B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Juilliard School as a classical violinist, only to make a difficult shift to becoming a jazz musician. As a violinist, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Barbican, Madison Square Garden, Village Vanguard, Blue Note Tokyo, Hollywood Bowl, and numerous festivals and concert halls worldwide.

ABOUT RONEN ITZIK (DRUMS)

Drummer Ronen Itzik is an Israeli native based in NYC. He has performed and recorded with jazz greats such as Lee Konitz, Gary Burton, Kenny Werner, Roy Hargrove, Joe Lovano, Marcus Roberts, Anat Cohen, Ben Monder and many more. His former teachers include Ian Froman, Jamey Hadad, Joe Hunt, John Hazilla, Marcus Roberts, Hal Crook, Yaaki Levi, and Eitan Itzkovich.

ABOUT YOTAM ISHAY (PIANO)

Yotam Ishay is an Israeli pianist & composer who performs both jazz and modern music, a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music with a full scholarship. Yotam grew up in Afula, a small town in Israel. His first experience with music was at the age of 9 when he heard his older sisters playing “Heart & Soul” on the piano. Being already passionate about music, and since he couldn’t read music yet, he asked them to write the names of the notes played in Hebrew so he could learn the song.Since graduating Berklee, Yotam has been active in the city of Boston as an educator in the city music program. He has been composing, playing, and arranging for Berklee “Signature Series” shows (Shankar Mahadevan Meets Berklee, Singers Showcase, and more).