Dr Sara Manasseh is an ethnomusicologist and performer of the music traditions of the Jews of Iraq. She was born in Bombay, moving to London (UK) in 1966. Her family, originally from Baghdad, settled in Bombay during the 19th and 20th centuries. She is a direct descendant of David Sassoon, who fled persecution in Baghdad, arriving in Bombay in 1832. She received her PhD and M Mus degrees in Ethnomusicology at London University and has diplomas in the piano (LRAM) and in specialist music teaching. She was Head of Music at London Comprehensive schools, Senior Lecturer in Music at Kingston University, Surrey, and also lectured in Jewish Music at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). Sara Manasseh is the founding director of the ensemble, Rivers of Babylon (London, 1999), performing religious and secular songs in the Iraqi Jewish tradition, middle-eastern instrumentals and vintage Bollywood songs. Sara Manasseh’s publications include articles, CDs, and her book, Shbahoth B Songs of Praise in the Babylonian Jewish Tradition: From Baghdad to Bombay and London (2012, Ashgate) with accompanying CD: More Precious than Pearls. Her chapter, >Music Traditions in the Baghdadi Jewish Communities of Bombay and Poona: Continuity, New Horizons=, is published in The Baghdadi Jews in India: Maintaining Communities, Negotiating Identities and Creating Super-diversity (2019, Routledge, ed. Shalva Weil).