October 03, 2005

Cantor Rebecca Garfein at Carnegie Hall Nov. 10

"Golden Chants In America"
Cantor Rebecca Garfein, Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Manhattan, will present the concert and historic CD debut of "Golden Chants in America...Commemorating 350 years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004," 7 p.m., Nov. 10, 2005 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York. Accompanying Cantor Garfein, at the concert and on the CD is "Golden Chants" musical director and pianist Jonathan Faiman and the "Golden Chants" combo and choir. Including music from the Spanish-Portuguese Jews, the synagogue and the Yiddish and Broadway theater, the CD is the first U.S. recording to feature Jewish music spanning 350 years of life in America. A portion of the concert proceeds will be donated to MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, and designated for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Tickets for the "Golden Chants" concert are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, Carnegie Charge 212-247-7800 or online at www.carnegiehall.org; the Cantor’s new CD will be available at metropolitan area music outlets and www.amazon.com.

Cantor Garfein, a mezzo-soprano who made history in 1997 as the first female cantor to sing in Berlin, Germany, explains, "Golden Chants" represents a compilation of three and a half centuries of significant Jewish music brought to the U.S. by Jewish immigrants or written by Jewish composers on American soil." She adds the concert and CD release are timely since this fall marks the end of a year-long celebration of 350 years of Jewish life in America.



Cantor Garfein says her concert and album will "pay tribute to all immigrants arriving in America looking for that golden chance of opportunity and freedom." She points out the album’s cover photo, taken from the southern edge of Ellis Island, represents the "new immigrant" looking south toward the Statue of Liberty "in anticipation of a new life." Symbolically, Cantor Garfein says, the album begins with "The Colossus," by Max Helfman, which sets to music the words of poet Emma Lazarus, a Sephardic Jew: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free…." The text of the full poem, written by Lazarus in 1883, is enshrined in bronze at the pedestal of the Statue Liberty.

The concert and album will feature compositions sung in a virtual rainbow of languages, including Spanish, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), German, Yiddish, Hebrew and English—much of which was brought to America by the Spanish-Portuguese, Russian and German Jews over the last 350 years. Album selections include "Bendigamos," a Spanish-Portuguese Jewish grace after meals sung in 16th century Castilian Spanish; and "Halleluyah," and the "Deutsche Kedusha," the great music of Vienna and Berlin written for the synagogue by Solomon Sulzer and Louis Lewandowski, respectively. To this day, most American Reform and many Conservative and Orthodox congregations continue to utilize Sulzer’s "Shema" and Lewandowski’s "Kiddush" in their services.

Other album and concert highlights feature Yiddish and Broadway music, including "Vos is gevorn fun mayn Shtetele?" (What has become of my Shtetl?), "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," and Jerome Kern’s "Can’t Help Lovin’ that Man," from the 1927 musical, "Show Boat."

The concert and CD will also pay tribute to several of the modern Jewish composers, including Cantor Robbie Solomon, who has written extensively for the American synagogue. His gospel-style "Peace by Piece," embodies a universal anthem that expresses commitment to social action and the ultimate goal of peace.

Also, Cantor Garfein will demonstrate how modern interpretations of ancient prayer melodies have been influenced by contemporary American harmonies with selections of "Yih’yu L’ratson" and "Oseh Shalom" (prayers for meditation and peace), by composer Cantor Marshall Portnoy.

First Female Cantor to Sing in Germany In 1997, Cantor Garfein became the first female cantor to give a solo concert at the Jewish Cultural Festival in Berlin Germany, from where her grandfather fled during the Holocaust. At the 1998 Berlin Jewish Cultural Festival, Cantor Garfein became the first female cantor to preside in a German synagogue and released a CD, "Sacred Chants of the Contemporary Synagogue," a live recording of her historic 1997 Berlin concert.

Cantor Garfein made her Carnegie Hall debut in June, 2005 in a benefit concert for the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater featuring Mandy Patinkin. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Cantor Garfein graduated cum laude from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music with a degree in vocal performance and opera. In 1993, she received her Master’s Degree in Sacred Music and Cantorial Investiture from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). She has been a featured soloist with the Ra’a’na’na Orchestra and the Zamir Chorale at the Jerusalem Theater in Israel and in 2001 was a soloist at the 350th anniversary concert of the Curacao Jewish Community.

While completing her studies at HUC-JIR, Cantor Garfein was the Director of Children’s Music at Riverdale Temple, Riverdale, the Bronx, New York. Upon graduation from HUC-JIR, she subsequently became the first Cantor of Riverdale Temple and served in that capacity until 1999, when she was the first woman appointed as Senior Cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City.

Accompanying Cantor Garfein, at the concert and on the CD is "Golden Chants" musical director and pianist Jonathan Faiman and the "Golden Chants" combo and choir. Mr. Faiman, a multiple ASCAP award winner, has received critical acclaim for his solo CD, "Hie Up The Mountain." He is a member of the Locrian Chamber Players and The Actors Company Theatre, with whom Mr. Faiman has composed and performed for numerous concerts and productions. In New York City, Mr. Faiman has performed extensively in most major halls, including Avery Fisher, Merkin, Symphony Space and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has taught at Concordia College and is on the faculty of Bloomingdale School of Music and the Preparatory Divison of Manhattan School of Music, from where he holds a Doctorate. Posted by jmwc at October 3, 2005 10:20 AM