Celebrating Women’s Voices

An amazing event will transpire on Wed, March 10, 2010
5:30pm - 8:30pm
Central Synagogue
123 East 55th Street
New York, NY

In the Jewish legal tradition there are rules restricting the female voice (kol isha) in public religious rituals. In a unique pre-Pesach program we celebrate these voices. Inspired by artist Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, an installation on permanent exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum celebrating famous women, we present a new take on a uniquely Jewish ‘dinner party’—the Passover seder. Join us to hear the glorious voices of Jewish women who will present familiar and not so familiar seder melodies reflecting the richness of Jewish music and the spiritual and aesthetic power of women’s voices. The evening will begin with a light supper and study of rabbinic texts taught by Rabbi Judith Hauptman, Talmud professor at Jewish Theological Seminary. The musical program will feature the voices of Sarah Aroeste, Ladino-rock musician; Melissa Berman, senior cantorial student at Jewish Theological Seminary; Cantor Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue; Adrienne Cooper, renowned interpreter of Yiddish song; Galeet Dardashti, Middle Eastern vocalist and composer; Sarah Mina Gordon, singer/lyricist of the band Yiddish Princess; Elizabeth Sacks, Associate Cantor at Central Synagogue and Basya Schechter, leader of the band Pharaoh's Daughter. Joyce Rosenzweig, music director at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah and faculty member at Hebrew Union College will provide piano accompaniment and master teacher Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses will weave the seder selections together with a narrative thread. Co-sponsored with and held at Central Synagogue, Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street.
Co-sponsored with and held at Central Synagogue, Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street.

Wed, Mar 10, 5:30–8:30 pm, $18 JCC & Central Synagogue members/$25

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: Call 646.505.5708

Yiddish Song of the Week

The An-sky Institute for Jewish Cutlure through The Center for Traditional Music and Dance present a new blog about Yiddish song, written by Itzik Gottesman. The blog contains information on the creators and presenters of the music, some historical data, the texts and the sound files.
http://yiddishsong.wordpress.com/

Sacred and Secular Music Texts in Modern Times

Friday March 5 2010
9:30 A.M. to noon.

We invite you to join us at our next Jewish Music Forum event, which will be held on March 5, 2010, at Center for Jewish History. Prof. Mark Slobin of Wesleyan University and Dr. Mark Kligman of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion will present a lecture entitled "Sacred and Secular Music Texts in Modern Times." We wish to extend a special thank you to our co-sponsors for this event, the Working Group on the Jewish Book at Center for Jewish History. The entire 2009-2010 Jewish Music Forum is a project of the American Society for Jewish Music, an affiliate of the the American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish History.

"Sacred and Secular Music Texts in Modern Times"

With Professor Mark Slobin, Wesleyan University and Dr. Mark Kligman, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Co-sponsored by the Working Group on the Jewish Book at Center for Jewish History.

March 5, 2010
9:30 A.M. – Noon

All events are FREE and open to the public.

Manuscripts containing music in Jewish contexts are significantly rare, prior to 1750 there are less than 25 notations. By 1750 and onwards notation of Jewish liturgical music, and later non-liturgical music, becomes a growing phenomenon. The Eduard Birnbaum Collection of Jewish Liturgical manuscripts, in the Klau Library of Hebrew UnionCollege--Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, is the largest collection of contains 65% of all known manuscripts of Jewish music prior to 1850. Mark Kligman will discuss the various music styles found with in these manuscripts and show a significant degree of secular influence in the 18th century. With the developments of Haskalah synagogue music changed significantly, through recorded example of the music in this collection Kligman will discuss the important changes of synagogue music in the 19th century.

In "Yiddish Theater and Popular Music: Manuscript and Print Sources" Professor Mark Slobin will summarize his work on early twentieth-century Yiddish popular music, from both Europe and the US, based on manuscript sources held at YIVO, and sheet music editions published in New York's Lower East Side during the immigrant era. The manuscripts serve as information about the interaction of music and theater as well as performance practice in a largely improvisatory music theater system. Slobin will examine how sheet music folio bundles integrate iconography, song text, and music style. Finally, issues of Americanization and commercialization of European genres, themes, and styles will be explored.

And our next event of the 2009–2010 season:

March 26, 2010 - 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Center for Jewish History
"In a Land Large as an Apple Tree': Wolpe's Avant-Garde Music, Pedagogy, and Pacifist Zionism in 1930's Palestine"

Dr. Brigid Cohen, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Respondent: Dr. Michael Beckerman, New York University

Boston Jewish Music Festival

Boston is having a Jewish Music Festival !! this March 6-14, 2010.
There will be the Klezmer Conservatory Band, classical music of Osvaldo Golijov, the Ladino music of Flory Jagoda, a presentation of Bloch's Sacred Service and many events for younger listeners, including a capella groups and Jewish rock bands. For complete information, links to ticket purchase, times and locales, see:
http://bostonjewishmusicfestival.com/