Yoni Avi Battat

A composer and musician, Yoni Avi Battat grew up outside New Haven, CT. His father, who was raised in Israel, is a descendant of Iraqi Jews, and it is this cultural inheritance that shapes much of Battat’s music, although he has also played in a klezmer band. He sings and plays the viola, the violin, and the oud. He studied Arabic language and music at Brandeis University, where he played in an Arabic ensemble, and he spent a year in Israel with an orchestra that focused on Mizrahi music. In 2021 and 2022, Battat performed on tour in the musical The Band’s Visit. His 2022 debut album was called Fragments. In 2024, his project Kedmah (a collaboration with Yosef Goldman) released an album of Mizrahi piyyutim (liturgical music), called Simu Lev.