Jazz, Middle Eastern traditions, metal, electronica, classical music…
many of the different musical paths which Israeli pianist and keyboardist Sharon Mansur has followed since childhood have converged in her debut album for ACT, ‘Trigger’.
“My first really strong experience of music was seeing ‘The Lion King’ at the age of six,” Mansur remembers.
“There were some powerful orchestral passages that felt like my heart was going to explode.” The experience left a lasting impression.
Sharon Mansur started studies of classical piano, immersed herself in the works of Chopin and Rachmaninov, but also developed a love for the great orchestral works.
Alongside classical music, she listened to a lot of metal, psychedelic and progressive rock and played keyboards in a symphonic metal band – big, intense, loud music in a band with a classical opera singer as the frontwoman.
She later discovered a fascination for improvisation in funk and blues bands and eventually began studying at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Another key experience was a concert by the academy’s faculty of Arabic music.
“I instantly felt at home with this music,” Mansur remembers.
“My father is from Iraq, so the melodies were deeply familiar, reminding me of those I heard growing up, and the odd meters felt natural to me as well, having listened to a lot of prog rock.”
This blending of different traditions is also a characteristic of Israel’s current pop and indie scene, in which Sharon Mansur has risen rapidly and now has a substantial profile.
Sharon Mansur’s music, then, reveals a hopeful view of the world: “Music shows that we can work together, that we share the same emotions, even if we speak different languages.
Music is the language of the heart, the language of nature.
I hope that through music I can have at least a small positive influence on the world around me.
I am very humble in that respect, I know that I know nothing.
I just do what I do best.
If I can make people in the same place from different cultures smile and cry together, then that means everything to me.”
