"This cycle of Jewish Songs is born of my research on traditional Hebrew music, a deeply rooted ancient music which has accompanied the Jewish people throughout centuries of wandering. I listened to the liturgical melodies from different sources and was mostly inspired by the art of singing of the Jewish cantors or Hazzans, in particular by their very expressive, but contained, interior way of singing. It is music in which the sacred and popular intermingle. Whether lighthearted or sad, slow or fast, prayer, popular song or dance, it is always shared, always intimate. It felt also as though I had always known this music, even before I was born. It was a very strange sensation." Sonia Wieder-Atherton