– epic and religious songs of the Jewish Bukhara tradition
One of the most extraordinary voices of the extremely rare tradition of Bukharian Jews, a pearl of modal and epic singing, and daughter of one of the foremost female singers of Tajikistan in the twentieth century, Barno Itzhakova. There is a tradition among the Bukharan Jews that they trace their ancestry to the Lost Tribes of Israel. The Bukharan Jews of Central Asia were essentially cut off from the rest of the Jewish world for more than two thousand years but somehow managed to preserve their Jewish identity and heritage. They are considered one of the oldest ethnoreligious groups of Central Asia and over the years, have developed their own distinct culture.
Sofia currently lives in Tel Aviv, where she performs primarily for her own community.