Daphnis and the Wind - A Balkan Myth - Witches Festival 2026

Mezzo Ensemble: Dorit Florentin: recorders; Orit Messer Yaakobi: baroque cello; Gidon Bartler: sacred guitars; with singers Neta Spiegel, Amit Fishbein and Leila Mazal Yinishan. A program rich in flavors, scents, and Balkan inspiration, setting out on a journey from Greek mythology to the living sounds of today. The story of Daphnis and Chloe, the shepherd, the nymphs, the forces of nature, and awakening love, opens a window into a world where music, nature, and myth are intertwined. From the earliest Greek sources that have reached us, through the Baroque-era work of Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, to folk melodies, we discover how ideas, stories, and sounds continue to echo across centuries. The Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra's "Witches?" Festival returns for its fifth year, and this year under the title "Echo," a journey following women, works, and voices that even in their own time received recognition, honor, and their rightful place, and whose influence did not disappear but continued to echo into later generations. Over two days, the audience will meet women who were creators, performers, queens and patronesses, muses and heroines — women whose actions and presence influenced the music and culture around them. From ancient myths to 20th-century jazz, from the salons of Vienna and Berlin to today's stage, the festival seeks to listen to voices that have reached us across the distance of time and to discover how they continue to live, change, and echo today.