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Rivka Amado, who performed traditional Ladino songs for a crowd of 100 May 19 at the Jewish Center in Princeton, remembers her grandmother putting her to sleep with romanceras, songs used by Sephardic Jews for centuries to teach their children moral lessons.

Although Amado always loved music, teaching herself to play Ladino songs on the piano and singing in her synagogue choir, she chose a career in medical and political ethics, because Israeli society at the time frowned upon music careers. She was able to return to her musical passion only later in life.

When Amado moved to Berkeley, Calif. in 2004, where she lives with her husband and son, she never expected to start a band, much less produce an album. Her entry into a small community of music teachers in the bay area, which allowed her to meet her guitarist Joel Siegel, was, she said, "karma."

Becoming a singer, Amado said, "has made me express myself in a new way, using my body differently, being more free. I also feel that I have something to teach the world through my knowledge."

As she reflected on pursuing music full-time, she said, "it's a financial risk. If I lived in New York, it would be different. But, Berkeley doesn't have the same opportunities for a musician. And I would have to change my style to cater to a much wider audience."

At the Jewish Center Amado performed traditional Ladino songs from her first album, "Hija Mia (My Daughter)." Titling her performance, "A Journey Back to Spain" she tried to convey the flavor of Sephardic culture through its music. One audience member remarked after the concert that she "never knew that Sephardic Jews consider Spain to be as much of a homeland as Israel."

Some of the most popular love songs, Amado explained, were about daughters and mothers waiting for their fathers or lovers to return from trips at sea. Other songs dealt with more universal themes of mourning, unrequited love, or the love of a mother for her daughter.

Amado's grandmother was central in her childhood in 1950s Holon, Israel, because both her parents worked, her father as a mechanic and her mother a nurse. But her connection to her grandmother was also an aspect of Sephardic culture. She said, "Sephardic Jews believe in the power of superstitions and dreams. I feel my grandmother is with me, especially since I am named Rivka, after her. She has been in my dreams and is a part of my spirit." In Sephardic tradition, the oldest child is named after the grandmother or grandfather of the father.

Amado got the audience moving as she performed several canticas, life cycle events or folk songs, as well as the popular Ladino Hanukkah song, "Ocho Kandelikas." One audience member, who was raised in a Ladino-speaking household in Morocco, commented, "The concert made me want to hear more of the Sephardic liturgical music. Ashkenazi synagogue music doesn't have the same liveliness and services are not participatory."

Amado's only connection to her past was through her grandmother's stories. Both sides of Amado's family, the Amados on her father's side and the Barbuts on her mother's, stem from an aristocratic line of families who fled from Spain to the Balkans during the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

Amado's mother and father, who had been living in Turkey and Bulgaria, made their way to Israel before World War II -- her mother through the Henrietta Szold Youth Aliyah movement in 1944 and her father with his parents, brother, and sister in 1936. Her father's only brother was killed while serving in the Palmach in 1948.

The Sephardic Jewish fate during the Holocaust, she said, is something rarely addressed. Few people know that 90 percent of the Jews of Salonika perished during World War II.

Using her skills as an academic, Amado has in the past 10 years researched the literature and history of the Jews of Spain. She's discovered anthologies of Ladino folktales and learned about the awe-inspiring Sephardic leaders, such as Dona Gracia Nasi and Don Isaac Abarbanel. She said, "How was I ignorant of all of this for so long? Ladino literature has as much wisdom to offer the world as Shakespeare or Plato."

Amado's exploration of her Sephardic background has made a difference in her own life. "My connection to the past is a coping mechanism, helping me to see my own challenges in perspective," Amado said. "Despite all my ancestors went through, they still managed to continue and take pride in their heritage."

Amado hopes to someday publish a book that will reflect her passion and knowledge and offer the world some of the traditions that were given to her. She is currently working on her second album, which will include original songs. Rivka Amado's music can be found at www.rivkamusic.com.