SOUNDS OF BAGHDAD: A MUSICAL JOURNEY WITH YAIR DALAL

Yair Dalal:
WHEN: Saturday, November 4, 2006 at 7:30 PM
WHERE: Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York City
SUGGESTED DONATION: $20
INFORMATION AND RESERVATIONS: 917-606-8200
A unique performance in the four-day program
Back to Babylon: 2600 Years of Jewish Life in Iraq, November 2-5, 2006,
Exploring the venerable and multifaceted culture of Iraqi Jewry
www.americansephardifederation.org<

During the first half of the 20th century, Jews were virtually the only instrumentalists in the Iraqi musical scene. All the musicians from Iraq who attended the first Arabic music congress in Cairo in 1932 were Jewish (but one). With the exile of the Jewish community in the 1950's, many famous Iraqi Jewish musicians immigrated to Israel.

Their legacy is still strong today, both in the preservation of the traditional Iraqi Maqam, and in its influence on contemporary Israeli music.

Yair Dalal's musical program retraces the steps of the great Babylonian musical heritage thorough the sacred songs rooted in the Iraqi Jewish tradition. It will include traditional Sabbath Zemirot, pieces from the Shevahot repertoire (songs of praise performed at communal gatherings), and instrumental classics by Iraqi-Jewish composers like Salah and Daud al-Kuwaiti.

Born in 1955, composer, violinist and oud player Yair Dalal is one of the most prolific Israeli ethnic musicians today. Over the last decade he released nine albums, covering wide and varied cultural territories. His work reflects the strong affinity he has for the desert and its habitants. Dalal's family came to Israel from Baghdad and he has included a host of Iraqi traditional musical sources in his work.
Whether performing on his own, or with his Alol ensemble, Dalal creates new Middle Eastern music by interweaving the traditions of Iraqi and Jewish Arabic music with a range of influences originating from such diverse cultural milieus as the Balkans and India. Dalal is one of a handful of artists who preserve and sustain the Babylonian musical heritage of the wonderful Jewish Iraqi musicians who emigrated from Iraq to Israel in the 1950s, from whom he learned much of his craft. During the past years, Dalal has collaborated with top musicians from all over the globe, from different disciplines, including celebrated western classical conductor Maestro Zubin Mehta, Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI, L.Shankar, Hamza el Din, Michel Bismuth, Ken Zuckerman, Armand Aamar, Shlomo Mintz, Maurice el Medioni and Mustafa Raza, Cihar Askin, Ensemble Kaboul, Adel Salameh, The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Kamerata Jerusalem Orchestra, and more. He participates and lectures in the Keshet Elyon Violin workshops, ISME - Music Education, European Network for Traditional Music and Dance, Mendocino Middle East Music Camp, and the Mediterranean Musical Dialogue in Israel. www.yairdalal.com

Kristallnacht Commemorated with the Glorious Music of Salomon Sulzer and Louis Lewandowski

New York. Congregation Rodeph Sholom's Senior Cantor, Rebecca Garfein, and Cantorial Intern, Jennifer Strauss-Klein will commemorate Kristallnacht-the Night of Broken Glass, with the music of renowned Viennese Cantor, Salomon Sulzer and Berlin composer, Louis Lewandowski at 6p.m., Friday, November 3, 2006 during Shabbat services. Guest Cantor, Dr. Bruce Ruben, newly appointed Director of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's School of Sacred Music will also participate in this special service. Rodeph Sholom's Organist, Dr. John Schuder and augmented professional choir, will accompany the cantors. This event is free of charge and the entire community is invited to attend. Rodeph Sholom is located at 7 West 83rd Street (off Central Park West.) For more information, please call (212) 362-8800, extension 1337.

Born in 1804, Sulzer is credited with being the first to modernize the cantorate and one of the earliest composers to westernize synagogue music. With Sulzer, the title of "Cantor" was born out of a desire to be accepted and understood by 19th century society. In fact, Sulzer was very much a part of modern musical circles. His closest friend and occasional collaborator was composer Franz Schubert. The influence of 19th century music is clearly heard in Sulzer's synagogue compositions. As a Cantor, Sulzer was very successful at creating a musical bridge between the "old world" and the newly enlightened world.

Throughout Europe, Louis Lewandowski assisted numerous Cantors in his day, the most famous being the celebrated Solomon Sulzer, who also composed for the Austrian and German synagogues. Lewandowski was the first composer to write for synagogues using organ and large choirs.

Cantor Rebecca Garfein, mezzo-soprano, is the Senior Cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City and is the first female Cantor to hold this position in the history of the congregation.

Cantor Garfein has appeared in concerts throughout the United States, Israel and Europe and at Carnegie Hall with Mandy Patinkin and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Recently she debuted her new album at Carnegie Hall entitled, "Golden Chants in America...Commemorating 350 years of Jewish Music, 1654-2004." "Golden Chants in America" is the first U.S. recording to feature Jewish music spanning 350 years of life in America. Cantor Garfein's other solo CD is a live recording from the 1997 Jewish Festival in Berlin entitled, "Sacred Chants of the Contemporary Synagogue."

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).

Cantor Bruce L. Ruben, Ph.D., baritone, is the Director of the School of Sacred Music (SSM) at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). He has taught Jewish history courses at HUC-JIR and the history of Jewish music at The Julliard School. For the past fifteen years, he has served as an adjunct professor of history at Hunter College, where he has taught courses on World History, Modern Jewish History, and the Holocaust. Since 1982, he has served as the Cantor of Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City, where he has organized special music programs with professional and volunteer choirs, written as well as commissioned and premiered new works by leading composers, taught adult education courses on the history of Jewish music, history, and liturgy, and developed innovative services for increased congregational participation. He has fostered interfaith relations as a leader in the Yorkville Christian-Jewish Council, and has been active for many years in community activities at a neighborhood senior citizen center.

Originally from La Crosse, Wisconsin, Jennifer Strauss-Klein, soprano, is a third-year cantorial student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999, and her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD in 2001. Jennifer continued to study at Peabody in the Graduate Performance Diploma program and also attended Baltimore Hebrew University in the Master of Arts in Jewish Studies program, where she won the Sidney Breitbart Prize in Jewish Philosophy. She currently serves as the Cantorial Intern of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan. She and her husband Nick Strauss-Klein welcomed a son, Henry, in March 2006.

Alhambra at Temple Shearith Israel in NYC

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006
7:30pm
Temple Shearith Israel
8 West 70th Street
Suggested contribution is $15 at the door.

ALHAMBRA plays the rhythmic and hauntingly beautiful Sephardic music of the Middle East, which melds the words and melodies of 15th century Spain, filtered through Turkey, Greece, the Balkans and Arabic lands.

ALHAMBRA was founded in 1981 by its director and lead singer Dr Isabelle Ganz, who is a professor of music, a cantorial soloist, a conductor, and an international performer and recording artist. She is joined by five other equally skilled professionals for whom Judeo-Spanish music is a special love. Haig Manoukian is considered one of the world's finest players of the oud - the fretless ancestor of our modern lute. Michael Hess, heard throughout New York playing klezmer music, performs on violin, riq (tambourine), kanun (trapezoidal zither) and nay (bamboo flute). Cantor Daniel Pincus is a lyric tenor whose repertoire extends to Bach, Schubert, and Salamone Rossi. Peter Basil Bogdanos is an exceptional percussionist who performs and records, playing a broad repertoire ranging from pop, jazz, R&B, to Middle-Eastern and Flamenco. Joseph Deninzon, who has been called the Jimmy Hendrix of the Violin, elicits extraordinary sounds from both electric and acoustic violins.

ALHAMBRA has recorded many CDs and cassettes, which will be available for sale at the performance.