RAZA is a musical listening project that explores the feminine voice in old Hasidic melodies.
Meaning “secret” or “hidden” in Aramaic, RAZA is an attempt to listen more deeply to sacred, traditional melodies, to ask a question of them, and open up to hear them whisper something new into the world. RAZA explores both the notes and the wisdom surrounding these rich, complex, and uplifting melodies, as passed down for centuries.
Led by Chana Raskin and a core group of harmony singers, RAZA’s debut album, KAPELYA, features a choir of 22 women’s voices from diverse backgrounds and a small band of virtuosic instrumentalists.
CHANA RASKIN, the founder and main facilitator of RAZA, is an untrained vocalist who grew up entrenched in the world of Chabad Hasidut and its stirringly simple and complex melodies. These nigunim have carried her at every point on her journey. At age four, waking up to a late-night farbrengen (Hasidic gathering) in her family’s small Brooklyn apartment, she found her way to her father’s knee as he was teaching an old Yiddish Chabad nigun. That nigun, “Ah Shtarker Bistu,” appears on RAZA’s debut album, KAPELYA, out Feb 22, 2023.
In her music and song circles, and especially in her one-on-one sessions, Chana strives to hold a space with others recovering from illness or traumatic injury, or simply seeking Home. She revels in the healing powers of quiet, laughter, humming, singing and movement.