The Mama Doni Band “Chanukah Fever Concert” Presented in Partnership with JCC Camps Gordon Center for Performing Arts, Sun., December. 1, 3 pm; $10 in Advance, $12 at Door
Owings Mills, Maryland (PRWEB) October 26, 2013 -- Doni Zasloff Thomas, besides being Mama Doni, is a music teacher, songwriter, lead singer for the band, and a mom, who has been honored with a Parents Choice® Award for the band’s CDs, Emunah and Shabbat Shaboom. The band is also winner of the Simcha Award for “Inspiring Joy Through Music” from the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam. Mama Doni celebrates Jewish culture with irrepressible zest in its high-energy, interactive family rock concerts, and acoustic Shabbat experiences filled with a blend of reggae, rock, disco, Latin, and Klezmer – all woven together with soulful energy and a super hip Jewish sensibility.
When Doni’s children’s preschool asked her to take a position as music teacher in early 2007, she readily agreed, and the creative juices started flowing. Wanting to share her love of Jewish culture with kids in a productive way, Doni soon began writing and recording her own songs and Mama Doni Productions was born! Doni’s first album,I Love Herring (& Other Fish Shticks for Kids), was released to immediate acclaim in May 2008. An EP for Purim in 2009 called “I Love Purim!” followed and then November 2010 brought a second full-length album, Chanukah Fever. Doni released her third full-length CD Shabbat Shaboom in March 2011 and her fourth album Emunah in the Fall 2012. Both of the last two CDs won a Parents' Choice® Award.
Mama Doni’s 2012-2013 tour is sponsored by Streit’s Matzo, and at every Mama Doni concert everyone in the audience receives a free CD, poster, and download card -- a gift from Streit's! Mama Doni was seen on 1,000,000 matzo boxes this year! She has also appeared on FOX-5 TV’s “Good Day New York,” NBC’s “Weekend Today” in New York, and E Channel’s “The Soup.” Mama Doni is also the spokesperson and host on SHALOM TV!
Mama Doni released her first book through Behrman House Publishers in Fall 2012 called Get Cooking! A Jewish American Family Cookbook & Rockin’ Mama Doni Celebration, a family guide for adding more fun to every holiday from Sukkot to the Suberbowl.
According to Carrie Stetler in The Star-Ledger, Doni Zasloff Thomas “is proud to have a schtick. And that schtick, she says, is to ‘Jewify’ all forms of music – from country to reggae to holiday songs.” The Miami Herald enthused, “Not since Woody Allen's Radio Days has American Jewish youth culture been celebrated with such a sublime mix of silly and substantive.”
Mama Doni, a resident of Montclair, New Jersey, hopes that her music will add some Jewish flavor to the lives of people everywhere. She speaks with great passion about preserving the priceless Yiddish and Jewish spirit by imbuing it with a contemporary vibe that connects to life in our times.
Mama Doni’s recordings are available nationwide, as CDs and digital downloads, from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, FYE.com, iTunes, and select Costco locations. Projects currently in production include Music & Matzo Balls: A Jewish American Family Cookbook (Behrman House Publishing), a new DVD, and a new CD. A TV pilot is also in the works!
The Gordon Center For Performing Arts creates a welcoming environment that engages, educates, entertains and expands the horizons of the Baltimore community through exploration and celebration of all types of art and Jewish culture.
Kelley Martin, Jewish Community Center of Baltimore, http://jcc.org, 410.500.5914, [email protected]
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