MUSIC

The Jewish Community Center of Houston presents OPA! A Lively Night of Music, Dance and Food with New York City’s Avram Pengas & the Noga Group! Saturday, March 26 at  8:00 PM, in the JCC Levit/Haikin Auditorium.

Bringing the music of Greece and Israel to the JCC is Greek-born musical arranger, lead guitarist and bouzouki virtuoso, Avram Pengas (pictured). Pengas is a versatile performer who plays popular Israeli hits, exotic Arabic melodies, pulsating Persian and Turkish rhythms, Greek and Armenian dance sounds and traditional Yiddish songs. He has appeared in New York at El Avram, Café Feenjon, and, in 1979, opened his own nightclub, Noga, in the heart of Greenwich Village. He has performed in the off-Broadway production of Hot Klezmer and can still be heard weekly at SoHo’s Cupping Room Café.

Avram Pengas’ Noga Group has been a staple of New York’s downtown music scene for nearly 30 years. The CD, “Santorini,” is the group’s latest recording and takes its name from the beautiful Greek island and the Greenwich Village cabaret that was filled each week with the exotic music of the Noga Group.

Come prepared to dance or just to enjoy the music from your table that will be filled with delicious Greek and Israeli delicacies lovingly prepared by Shelley Rappaport (Nosher), George Demeris and his talented mother, Eleni.

Greek and Israeli food and wine provided (HKA supervised).

This concert is funded in part by the Maurice Amado Foundation and in partnership between the Jewish Community Center and the Hellenic Cultural Center.