Mood Mix with Ari Boiangiu

He’s the owner of the popular Blue Melody Group, but ARI BOIANGIU is more than just a guitarist and orchestra leader who’s been playing weddings at night for over two decades. He’s also a Torah teacher by day, as well as an inspirational speaker.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF MY JOB

A tie between these two: making the customer completely happy and at the same time making sure everyone in the room is happy, and not letting my own or my band’s preferences get in the way of what the simchah needs at that moment. We might love improvising, or branching out from certain songs, but we’re there to entertain the crowd in the way they’ll most enjoy it. When you do this for a living, you need to focus on bringing simchah and emotion to your audience, not your own musical creativity.

A JEWISH MUSIC ARTIST I MOST CONNECT TO

I prefer the artists who go for simple, whose singing is less a showcase of their fancy vocals than a focus on the niggun itself. Yosef Karduner for example, or vintage Rabbis’ Sons and Dveykus material, are easy to connect to because the singing is simple, not a performance meant to display someone’s incredible vocal range.

A SONG THAT TAKES ME TO A DIFFERENT TIME AND PLACE

Ishay Ribo’s “Seder Ha’Avoda.” Epic. It shakes the world and practically leads you to Har Habayis on Yom Kippur, right as the Kohanim are about to bow down.

A TUNE THAT’S A PERFECT MATCH FOR THE WORDS

“Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh.” The words are paced perfectly with the melody. They build up to a crescendo as the tune builds up, and the climax of the song is where you get to the highest level of devotion — “ulekorban akriv lo es nafshi, es nafshi hayechidah.”