Yehudi Wyner wins the Pulitzer Prize

Yehudi Wyner, composer and faculty member at Brandeis for many years until his recent retirement, won the Pulitzer Prize in music yesterday for his piano concerto ''Chiavi in mano." The concerto was premiered in Boston at the Boston Symphony Orchestra concert last year. Wyner is the first Boston-based composer to win for a BSO work since Walter Piston in 1948.

Wyner is the son of Lazar Weiner, and is a well known composer in the Boston area and internationally. Yehudi was born in 1929 in Calgary, Alberta, but grew up in NYC. He studied at Julliard, Yale (with Richard Donovan and Paul Hindemith), and Harvard (with Walter Piston). In 1953, he won the Rome Prize in Composition. He taught at Yale from 1963-77, and served as head of the composition faculty there. At SUNY Purchase (1978-89) he was also Dean of the Music Division. In 1986, he was visiting professor at Cornell. He joined Brandeis in 1989, where was the Walter W. Naumburg Professor of Composition, since 1991. He has been a frequent visitng professor at Harvard. In addition, he has been on the chamber music faculty at Tanglewood Music Center from 1975-1997. In 1998, Wyner received the Elise Stoeger Award from the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society for his lifetime contribution to chamber music, and in 1999, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since 1968 Wyner has been a keyboard artist for Bach Aria Group.

We, at Brandeis, are very excited about this! A well-deserved prize, Yehudi is a wonderful composer. A few years ago, in April 2002, Yehudi gave a concert with soprano Re'ut Ben Ze'ev of his father's Yiddish art songs here at the library for the Music Library Association program. Yehudi was at the keyboard, and it remains one of the most memorable concerts of my 14 years here at Brandeis.

Judy

Yehudi's works include compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo voice and instruments, music for the theater, and liturgical services for worship. Many works were created for his wife, Susan Davenny Wyner, including Intermedio, a lyric ballet for soprano and string orchestra; Fragments from Antiquity for soprano and orchestra; and On This Most Voluptuous Night for soprano and chamber ensemble. Some recent works include Prologue and Narrative for Cello and Orchestra (1994), commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic; Lyric Harmony for orchestra (1995), commissioned by Carnegie Hall; Epilogue for Orchestra (1996), commissioned by Yale School of Music. Recent works also include String Quartet; Toward the Center; Sweet Consort, Trapunto Junction;Horntrio (a finalist for Pulitzer in 1998); Madrigal (1999) and Oboe Quartet (1999). He's won 2 Guggenheim Fellowships, The Brandeis Creative Arts Award, and many more. Several of his compositions were recently released on the Milken Jewish Music Archive Collection on the Naxos Label, which won a Grammy Award, including The Mirror, ; Passover Offering ; Tants un Maysele. "The music of Yehudi Wyner" was released on BRIDGE 9134 and Cello Concerto, Prologue and Narrative on TROY516 Albany Records. He's released works on CRI ( CD 701 CRI), New World Records (8059-2), Columbia and Pro Arte, and Naxos labels as well.

The Boston Globe wrote: "Born in Canada, Wyner grew up in New York and trained at the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Harvard University. Music has been the center of his entire life. His father, Lazar Weiner, was the preeminent composer of Yiddish art songs. Yehudi Wyner taught for most of his career and recently retired from his professorship at Brandeis University. He and his wife, soprano and conductor Susan Davenny Wyner, moved to Boston 20 years ago. Wyner was never an academic composer and never merely an academic. He has earned considerable acclaim as a pianist and conductor; for nearly 40 years he has been the keyboardist for the Bach Aria Group, a prominent touring and teaching ensemble that specializes in music from Bach's cantatas. And he has produced a large catalog of music in many genres; his ''horntrio" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998."

SP!EL @ the Hampstead Theatre London

Sunday 23rd April 7pm – 11pm
Tracy Ann Oberman, Maureen Lipman, David Aaronovitch, Norman Lebrecht, Max Wigram and more…
SP!EL @ the Hampstead Theatre and the new Jewish Community Centre for London
Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue Swiss Cottage, NW3 3EU
Price: £12 /£11 concessions
Book on 0207 722 9301 or online at www.hampsteadtheatre.com

At SP!EL, four guests including Maureen Lipman, Tracy Ann Oberman, Norman Lebrecht and Max Wigram with host David Aaronovitch will chew the fat over contemporary cultural events, surrounded by sneak live previews of new albums, plays, performance and books by visiting bands, actors and contemporary dancers.

We will feature a performance from Three Admirers, a newly commissioned piece from the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer, adapted by the award-winning Samuel Adamson and directed by Mark Rosenblatt plus dj Max Reinhardt in the bar after the show.

Discussion includes Andy Warhol’s Ten Portrait Of Jews at the National Portrait Gallery, the new novel Journey to the land of No by Roya Hakakian and Ushpizin, showing at Screen on the Hill and the Odeon Swiss Cottage.

Produced by YaD Arts for the Jewish Community Centre www.hampsteadtheatre.com & www.jewishcommunitycentre.org.uk

Posted by jmwc at 08:35 PM

Chag Pesach Sameach

Have a Joyous Celebration of Freedom
with Family, Friends, Community

Happy Passover!
---from The Jewish Music WebCenter----

Liderman "Aires de Sefarad" CD Released

Albany Records has just released "Aires de Sefarad" (Airs from Spain). It is a cycle of 46 works,an hour of music written for the violin and guitar ensemble-Duo46 by award winning composer Jorge Liderman. The music is based loosely on 500-year old Jewish music from around the Mediterranean. After a 2003 visit to Spain and walking through the Jewish quarter in Cordoba, Liderman was inspired to write these works. Albany Records "Aires de Sefarad", Albany Records TROY-829,can be purchased at retail record stores or online. For information about Duo46 and Jorge Liderman visit websites http://www.duo46.com and http://www.jorgeliderman.com

Gates of Justice at the Washington National Cathedral

Saturday, July 1, 2006
Washington National Cathedral
Dave Brubeck's The Gates of Justice The Dave Brubeck Quartet;
Kevin Deas, baritone; Russell Gloyd, conductor
Presented by the Cathedral Choral Society
Tickets: (202) 537-5527
www.cathedralchoralsociety.org
Cathedral Choral Society
(202) 298-8023
ckempler@cathedral.org

SpiriTune for Shabbat

Michael Buonaiuto has a CD "SpriTune" Sacred Space: Melodies to Welcome Shabbat. It's a collection of melodies for the Jewish Sabbath, played simply on acoustic instruments.. The Boston-based trio featuring Michael Buonaiuto on hammered dulcimer, Beth Levin on guitar, and Jon Dreyer on bass. Available through CD Baby:http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/spiritune

Passover Melodies Online

Judaism.com has put up a number of melodies to help people learn the Passover Seder online. You can hear the melody through your computer, and look at the text in a variety of Haggadahs. They give corresponding page numbers for several popular Haggadahs. http://www.judaism.com/digital_haggadah/ Just find your Haggadah and learn the music to go along. Have a Festive and Happy Passover.

21st Zimriya World Assembly of Choirs in Israel

It's a ways away... in July 30-August 9, 2007, but your group may be interested in preparing now for the World Assembly of Choirs in Israel. to be held on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel. Well known conductors will lead the workshops. The Zimriya, which was found in 1952, takes place every 3 years. There are choirs expected to attend from all over the world. You can express an interest in attending by September 15, 2006, or find out more information by contacting harzimco@netvision.net.il or writing to ZIMRIYA, 4, Aharonowitz Street, Tel Aviv 63 566, Israel or visit the website at www.zimriya.org.il. Individual singers age 18-35 interested in attending the international choir workshop and concert conducted by Michael Gohl (Switzerland) can contact michael.gohl@bluewin.ch

San Diego Jewish Music Festival

The 7th Annual Jewish Music Festival will take place in San Diego, California throughout the month of May.
Violinist Zina Schiff in Recital: Music Played in Terezin, Monday, May 15, 7:30pm
Varian Fry Assignment: Rescue, May 15–June 4
FATHOM: The Body as Universe, Partner's Celebration Performance, Thursday, May 18 @ the Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theatre
Celebrating Shostakovich, Celebrating Shostakovich Wednesday, May 24, 7:30pm
Danny Maseng: Wasting Time with Harry Davidowitz, Saturday, May 27, 8:00pm
Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Cuarteto Latinoamericano Tuesday, May 30, 7:30pm
Klezmer in the Park at the Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park, Thursday, June 22, 6:15pm
For more information, visit the festival website at http://sdcjc.lfjcc.org/sdjmf/2006/

Devora Gila in Concert

Devora Gila presents a benefit concert for Midreshet B'erot Bat Ayin
Saturday night, April 8 at 8:15pm
Bat Ayin, Gush Etzion
Also featuring Guest Choreographer/Dancer Yocheved Polanski from Cli Institute of Dance, A Judaic Dance and Arts Program for Women and Girls (Ohio, USA)
Donation requested: 15 NIS

For more information about Midreshet B'erot Bat Ayin: http://www.berotbatayin.org/
For Jewish women's dance, contact: www.cliinstitute.com
For more about Devora Gila: www.cdbaby.com/cd/devoragila

Yiddishe Cup at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts

YIDDISHE CUP
2 p.m. Sun., April 23, 2006
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
(at Brooklyn College)
Walt Whitman Theatre
$25
718-951-4500
www.BrooklynCenterOnline.org

Jack Gottlieb's website

Jack Gottlieb, composer and director of the Leonard Bernstein Office, has published a website with information on Gottlieb's own compositions, including music reviews, list of recordings, writings, and audio clips. The site includes a biography and a calendar of appearances. Visit: http://www.jackgottlieb.com/