Community Events
CHANUKAH CONCERT AND INDOOR PICNIC
Date: Thursday, December 2
Location: New Orleans JCC - Uptown
Featuring: Mama Doni Band
RSVP here
What is the Mama Doni Band?
Mama Doni, a.k.a. Doni Zasloff Thomas, is a mom, music teacher, songwriter, and lead singer in The Mama Doni Band, winner of the 2008 Simcha Award for “Inspiring Joy Through Music,” in competition with more than 100 bands from 15 different countries at the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, Holland. She was invited back to Amsterdam the next year in 2009 to perform a concert and conduct a workshop.
Immersed in Jewish life and music since childhood, Doni grew up on the Washington DC area, attending The Hebrew Day Institute and The Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. She then moved to Philadelphia and finished high school at Akiba Academy. She attended Camp Ramah, Camp Judea, Camp Moshava, and Camp Bnai Brith where she was drama/dance counselor. Through high school she was a Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutor and Hebrew School teacher, she then went to Brandeis University and NYU, where she earned a degree in Educational Theatre and Performing Arts. Pursuing a career in children's media and marketing, Doni was creative director for an award winning, pioneering children's media company for more than seven years.
When Doni’s children’s preschool asked her to take a position as music teacher in early 2007, she became a trained Music Together teacher, and the creative juices started flowing. Wanting to share her love of Jewish culture with kids in a fun and cool way, Doni soon began writing and recording her own songs. 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. A 4-song EP for Chanukah, I Love Chanukah!, and an EP for Purim, I Love Purim!, followed. November 2009 brought a new, full-length album, Chanukah Fever which received rave reviews! Quirky, funny, and always unpredictable, Doni’s music brings a fun new twist to Chanukah in this CD, as it ventures through dance beats, Latin pop, "Jewgrass" hoe-downs, and dazzling disco ditties to make latkes, dreidels and Yiddish expressions cooler than ever.
Recognized in The New York Times, LA Times, The Jewish Daily Forward, New York Post, The Star-Ledger, The Record, Time Out New York Kids, New Jersey Jewish News, The Jewish Week, Jewish Woman International Magazine, and more, The Mama Doni Band delights families throughout the country. In addition to producing funky, family-friendly CDs and videos, Mama Doni and her team present an array of live concerts and workshops.
The band embarked on their first national tour that began in the fall 2009, with stops planned in Houston, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Washington, DC. At the special invitation of The International Jewish Music Festival, The Mama Doni Band returned to Amsterdam for performances and workshops in October 2009. Band members, in addition to Doni Zasloff Thomas, include Eric Lindberg, guitar; Alexander Tyshkov, bass; and Cliff Ramsay, drums.
