About

Hineinu: Songs for This Time

Following its premiere at the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival of the Spoken Word, Nadav Kahn and Joey DeRusha bring their new work Hineinu to Melbourne.

Hebrew, English and Yiddish, song, prayer, chants, niggunim and spoken word come together in a musical and poetic odyssey responding to the aftermath of the Bondi attack and the long shadow of October 7.

At its heart, Hineinu is a new body of original songs written in the wake of the December 14 attack in Bondi, as a way of processing, questioning and expressing what we have been living through over the past few years. These are woven together with reimagined Hebrew liturgical and Yiddish pieces, modern songs and wordless melodies, creating a journey through memory and the present, grief and resilience, rupture and repair.

Part concert, part vigil and part prayer space, Hineinu invites audiences into an intimate, meditative and deeply musical evening of listening, reflection and shared voice.

Hineinu means “Here we are.” It is a simple declaration of presence: here we are with our stories, our history, our uncertainty, our grief, our hope and our songs.

Nadav Kahn is a Sydney-based award-winning singer/songwriter, producer, music therapist and mantra meditation teacher. He has released 12 records and collaborated and co-written with artists from Maroon 5, Empire of the Sun and Gomez, Steve Aoki, Aminé and Lior among others. A member of the former bands Gelbison, Kahn Brothers, Nations by the River, Operation Aloha and Air Land Sea, Nadav received the 2009 APRA Music Award for Song of the Year. In 2013 he composed his first feature film soundtrack for Lynch’s Despite the Gods, and in 2024 his voice and music debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in the feature film Everything In Between.

Joey DeRusha is a Los Angeles musician now based in Sydney. A deeply creative soul, he is a multi-instrumentalist, poet and visual artist, fluidly moving between the worlds of free spiritual jazz, klezmer, reggae, punk, folk, spoken word and gospel. His distinctive musical voice is shaped by curiosity and a willingness to cross boundaries, bringing together disparate influences to create work that is both adventurous and deeply human. Whether performing, composing or creating visually, Joey brings a spirit of experimentation, playfulness and emotional depth to everything he does.

Date

Contact Event Organiser