As the first woman to continue her family’s tradition of distinguished Persian and Jewish musicianship, Galeet Dardashti pursues her passion for Jewish and Middle Eastern music as vocalist/composer and scholar. Galeet’s grandfather, Yona Dardashti, was one of the most highly acclaimed singers of Persian classical music in Iran. Together with her family, Galeet performed Jewish music throughout the US and Canada for almost twenty years. Since then, she has earned a reputation as one of the most innovative Jewish and Middle Eastern musicians today.
She received a Six Points Fellowship to pursue her multi-disciplinary 2010 nationally acclaimed release, The Naming, which interprets some of the compelling women of the Bible. Her most recent work, Monajat, commissioned by the Foundation for Jewish Culture, is inspired by old and haunting recordings of the Jewish prayers of Selihot chanted by her grandfather. Dardashti is also the leader of the renowned all-female power-house Mizrahi ensemble, Divahn.
Having studied with her father, Hazzan Farid Dardashti, Galeet has significant cantorial experience and leads Mizrahi/Sephardi Shabbat services throughout the country. Dardashti also holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University at the Taub Center for Israel Studies. She offers residencies, lectures, and interactive workshops on her artistic and academic work throughout the US and abroad.