USDAN CENTER ANNOUNCES 2008 FESTIVAL CONCERTS

SPECIAL JULY 17 CONCERT OF REMEMBRANCE AND CELEBRATION; 60th ANNIVERSARY OF ISRAEL, WITH EXCERPTS FROM CHILDREN S OPERA BRUNDIBAR Usdan Center For the Creative and Performing Arts (www.usdan.com), America's premier summer arts day camp, will present its annual Festival Concerts, private 30-minute educational performances, just for Usdan students, at its on-site 1,000-seat McKinley Ampitheater, beginning Monday June 30.

A unique event this season will be the July 17 Concert of Remembrance and Celebration; 60th Anniversary of Israel, hosted by the international concert presenter and programmer Caroline Stoessinger. The concert will include excerpts from Brundibar, the children s opera first performed in the Terezin concentration camp, and since World War II, sung continually in Israel and throughout the world. The Usdan Center Junior Chorus will perform.

Usdan Center is at 185 Colonial Springs Road, Wheatley Heights (Huntington), New York, (631) 643-7900. For more information, visit www.usdan.com. Opening the program of concerts on June 30 will be the rising tap dance team of DeWitt Fleming and Jared Grimes, guest artists with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, tap festivals and Off-Broadway shows; other artists include jazz star Jane Monheit (a former Usdan student), tenor Gerard Powers, who has sung leading roles with the New York City, San Francisco and Bolshoi Operas; Voices of Broadway, members of the casts of Broadway s Wicked, Curtains and Mamma Mia; Empire Brass, considered North America s finest brass quintet; Polish jazz pianist Mateusz Kolakowski, prizewinner of the Chopin and Paderewski piano competitions; the Brasil Guitar Duo, 2006 Concert Artists Guild winners; The Chameleons, the popular mime troupe; violinist Adela Pe a, founder of The Eroica Trio. She will perform with Music From Copland House, the resident ensemble of the late composer Aaron Copland s landmark home; the unique Faustwork Mask Theatre, whose synthesis of theater, physical comedy, music, dance and poetry have delighted audiences internationally for 25 years; violinist Rachel Lee, soloist with orchestras around the world; and jazz pianist/composer Ted Rosenthal, winner of the Thelonius Monk International Piano Competition and performer with Wynton Marsalis, Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer and Jon Faddis. He will present the New York instrumental premiere of his jazz quintet SwingFlight, first performed last March with the Nilas Martin Dancers at Manhattan s DiCapo Opera Theater.

After the first few weeks of the Usdan season, onstage performances begin by students of the many programs at the Center. A complete schedule of professional performances follows.

Usdan Center is at 185 Colonial Springs Road, Wheatley Heights (Huntington), New York, (631) 643-7900. For more information, visit www.usdan.com.

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, America's largest summer arts day camp, was formed to introduce young people, ages 6 to 18, to the arts through performance and study with a professional faculty of artist-teachers. The Center's mission is to provide children with the arts as a companion for life through great teaching, and the camaraderie of fellow students who share a love the arts. Usdan offers more than 40 programs in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, media arts, chess, creative writing, and nature and ecology. No audition is required for most Usdan programs, and one-third of the Center's 1,600 students receive tuition assistance to study at Usdan. Children commute to the Center every weekday for seven weeks each summer, traveling on on air-conditioned buses that leave from most New York metropolitan-area neighborhoods. A special feature of the students' daily program is the Center's series of Festival Concerts, daily educational performances by distinguished artists, such as the Tokyo String Quartet, James Galway, Canadian Brass, jazz legends Jimmy Heath and Billy Taylor, the Limon Dance Company, and cast members of current Broadway shows. Although the Center's goal is to encourage participation in the arts, Usdan's unique program has also inspired many former students to go on to professional careers. Alumni include actors Natalie Portman, Lisa Gay Hamilton (featured in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean on Broadway) and Jordan Leeds (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), Tony Award-winning playwright Michele Lowe, singers Mariah Carey and Jane Monheit, and members of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and numerous ballet companies including Pacific Northwest, Ballet San Jose, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet. Usdan Center is an agency of UJA-Federation of New York

FESTIVAL CONCERTS Schedule (dates not indicated feature student performances):

Monday, June 30: Dewitt Fleming, Jr. and Jared Grimes
Tuesday, July 1: Gerard Powers
Wednesday, July 2: Adela Pe a with Music From Copland House
Thursday, July 3: The Chameleons
Monday, July 7: Mateusz Kolakowski
Tuesday, July 8: Voices of Broadway
Wednesday, July 9: Rachel Lee
Thursday, July 10: Empire Brass
Monday, July 14: Brasil Guitar Duo
Tuesday, July 15: Faustwork Mask Theatre
Thursday, July 17: Concert of Remembrance and Celebration: 60th Anniversary of Israel
Friday, July 18: Jane Monheit
Monday, July 21: Ted Rosenthal Quintet

Strauss/Warschauer Duo in Prague and Amsterdam

The Strauss/Warschauer Duo will be performing Strauss/Warschauer Duo in Prague June 18 at 7 PM as part of the Nine Gates Festival. Information: www.9bran.cz http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zQW-I11CelMEEPYiPcHk1Fu6UrMY-HAXGaxRkZ8f634Lzakk1L7fGB8NdYQn2WPa-G9mcFlV7FrBD3CwRrP4AJcXDOCG4YNmxfnnw5YrK4c= (Czech only). Jeff and Deborah will be in Amsterdam next Sunday afternoon, June 22 at 2 PM, at de Burcht. Information: www.mokumalef.nl http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zQW-I11CelO4IN_s9CRH_tz-YsZlyxmGcZ7VWycHpUvbxPjOfA7UMDAjRX57ZraqXs4S-onsrIk1flB43qTXU9JURxkGMlSX9E4OLu7_AYYroeRf2-bLjg== or www.deburcht.org http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zQW-I11CelPeFsgWxfUqWR9r22wQcvKPKV2bUpiW0ktQ4TtwwQT1RZu4ruapEaDkaxb1phKc7hkI3nZ0U_c8EytNV_nLGpXFG9-Q3XkhzVnnOODzBn1IYg== or telephone 020-6241166.

CD Release for Teach My Lips a Blessing: The Music of Erik Contzius

"Teach My Lips a Blessing: The Music of Erik Contzius" makes its debut at Temple Israel of New Rochelle on June 20, 2008. Recorded with the Amor Artis Chamber Choir under the baton of Maestro Johannes Somary, Christopher Creaghan, organist, guest cantors Helene Reps and Hayley Kobilinsky, tenor Jacob Meiner and the Youth Choir of Temple Israel, Cantor Erik Contzius lends his baritone voice and compositional style to this CD of twenty works for the synagogue. This collection highlights the grandeur of the Reform prayer service as well as several of the Psalms and other liturgies. Contzius' composition, "And Hannah Prayed," featured on this recording was recently selected as a finalist at Shalshelet's Third International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music in Wisconsin.

"Teach My Lips a Blessing" is available through digital distributors such as iTunes and Amazon.com, and is available as a physical CD at <http://cdbaby.com/cd/contzius>. Reviewers have said of the new recording:

"...what a collection of innovative melodies both traditional in style and eclectic..."

"...a well balanced variety of inspirational choral and solo compositions..."

"The range of texts the boldness of the interpretations and the beauty of the renditions are all helping to point the way forward for recordings of Jewish liturgical music."

More information about the recording and Cantor Contzius can be found at: <http://contzius.com/>.

what a Jewish gal was singing 50 years ago or so

Everyone knows YouTube. Occasionally you find real gems. Here is Dinah Shore and Peggy Lee singing a medley as swinging jazz.

Dinah Shore, born Frances Rose, who grew up in Winchester, Tennessee (and later, Nashville) was a daughter of Jewish immigrants. Her mother was a contralto and her father a merchant. She suffered from polio, but was not hampered in her educational pursuits to go on to Vanderbilt University. From there she went to New York to be a singer. She cut her first recording in 1940, and from there went into radio and later television.Her first live engagement was with Ed Wynn on NBC. She remained with that network for most of her tv career.
For more information on Dinah Shore, see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinah_Shore or the Dinah Shore Fan Club website at http://www.dinahshorefanclub.com/dsbio2.htm