Yonat Mayer at TEDxBerkeley

Yonat and Her Muse at TEDxBerkeley 2014: "Rethink. Redefine. Recreate."

Daughter of a blues & jazz guitarist and an avid music fan, the lullabies of Yonat's infancy were Albert Collins and Coltrane. The metallic smell of her dad's fender guitar amp stayed with Yonat into early childhood, when she would sing Love Potion No 9 to a rapt crowd with his band in the bars of Tel Aviv and Milwaukee. Grade school saw her singing lead parts in her Jewish school choir and performing in professional theatre companies around Milwaukee. Soon Yonat woke to Aretha Franklin, Carole King & Sheryl Crow. She spent her teenage years listening to Lauryn Hill and Dinah Washington on repeat, mimicking their every inflection.

After being rejected from the Israeli army band auditions she enlisted and served a tiresome 2 years as a soldier during the revival of Israeli spiritual folk music and found a close role model in Israel's leading folk singer, David Broza, who kept rooting for her to follow her dreams. Back in civilian clothes, she enrolled at Rimon, Israel's leading contemporary music school where she was turned off by the humdrum of music theory and Israeli pop culture songwriting. She soon fled to India to deepen studies in Indian spirituality and Hindustani Classical Vocal music, as well as a long, sordid love affair that helped her hone her skill in writing heartbreak songs.

Yonat returned to the US in 2008 and moved to San Francisco to pursue a masters degree in psychotherapy. At the time of graduation her father's health deteriorated and she took this turn of events as the driving force behind putting her psychology career on hold in pursuit of her number one passion -- music.
Performing around the Bay Area since 2011 with her band Yonat & Her Muse -- a folk-soul ensemble reminiscent of Norah Jones meets Adele -- the band has shared the stage with artists such as post rock musician Fink and singer-songwriter Foy Vance.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)