Korczak's Orphans Opera in Brooklyn

The opear, Korczak's Orphans will be presented by the Opera Company of Brooklyn Saturday, May 3, 7pm at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
,br /> http://www.operabrooklyn.com/performances.htm This Yom Hashoah, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue hosts the Opera Company of Brooklyn's premiere of Korczak's Orphans. This opera, by composer Adam Silverman and librettist Susan Gubernat, is a moving, impassioned story based on the life of Janusz Korczak (1878-1942). Directed by SWFS member Judy Weinstein and member Will Conard performs. Tickets are $25 and can be purchesed at the door, by calling 212-567-3283 or at http://www.operabrooklyn.com. Free to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue (SWFS) Members. Stephen Wise Free Synagogue(30 West 68th Street, Manhattan; subway: 1 to 66th Street or B/C to 72nd Street). A Polish Jew, Korczak was a medical doctor, radio celebrity, and author who protected 200 children in a Jewish orphanage he founded amidst the chaos of the Nazi-occupied Warsaw Ghetto. Korczak maintained the orphanage as a refuge until he and his orphans were expelled from it and led to death at Treblinka.

Korczak is a famous figure in Poland, one of the heroes of World War II. He spent his life tending to the needs of orphaned children, and he used his influence to gain necessary supplies for his orphanage: food, money, and medicine. Unwilling to let the Nazi occupiers define him, he refused to wear the yellow Star of David required for all Jews, an offense for which he was jailed by the Gestapo. As the war progressed and his grim fate became increasingly evident, his response was to prepare himself and the children for a dignified processional out of the gates of the orphanage, past a stunned citizenry and muted cadre of SS officers.

The New York City Opera’s orchestra and soloists under the baton of Music Director George Manahan performed act II of Korczak’s Orphans in 2004. The New York Times raved that “the music of Act II, performed complete, was pulsing, glitteringly orchestrated and harmonically pungent.” Jay Meetze, founder and artistic director of the Opera Company of Brooklyn, will conduct, Judith Weinstein will direct the cast, Christopher Bruckman will assist on the piano, with the OCB Children’s Chorus prepared by Sarah Jane Hintz-Rau. Tracy Wise, reprising his role as Korczak, leads a cast of singers that features Mary Rauh, Maija Lisa Currie, Candice Hoyes, Kathryn Krasovec, Danielle Musick, Laurie Rubin, Giuseppe Spoletini, Mark Kaczmarczyk and Jonathan Hare. For more information about Korczak’s Orphans, the history behind the opera’s story and the artistic partners, please visit http://adambsilverman.com/korczak.

--STARRING: Tracy Wise as Janusz Korczak and Korczak's Father, Mary Rauh as Stefa Wilczynska, Maija Lisa Currie as Esterka Winogran, Candice Hoyes as Miss G. and Nun 1, Kathryn Krasovec as Female Passerby and Nun 2, Danielle Musick as Nun 3, Laurie Rubin as Nun 4, Giuseppe Spoletini as Bula Szulc, Male Passerby and SS Soldier 1, Mark Kaczmarczyk as Mr. S., Adam Czerniakow, Father Christmas/Herod, SS Soldier 2, Jonathan Hare as Mr. M., Neighbor and Rickshaw Driver

CHILDREN's CHORUS-Sarah J. Hintz-Rau, Conductor, Ben Albert as Marek, Alexander Bird as Abrasha, Will Conard as Stasiek and Jozef, Sabrina Edelman as Ghetto Child, Caroline Lenz as Hanna, Marleina Hanau Cohen as Ghetto Child, Natasjah Holtz as Ghetto Child, Kristina Lakshin as Helenka, Caroline Lenz as Orphan, Trishena Ronqiue Lewin as Orphan, Devon Lewis Gubrud as Ghetto Child, Taylor Lockwood as Aleksandra, Tyler Mitnik as Henryk (Young Korczak), Kapria Reletta Joseph as Orphan, Yonatan Rozin as Jerzyk, Lydia Mariko Stetson as Ghetto Child

Musicians of Lenox Hill to Perform Chamber Music of Jewish Composers

On Monday, April 28 at 8 PM, the Musicians of Lenox Hill, under the artistic direction of Soo-Kyung Park, will perform Chamber Music of Jewish Composers at Temple Israel of the City of New York, 112 East 75th Street, New York City. The concert will feature six extraordinary musicians presenting familiar as well as new or rarely heard music by composers of Jewish faith or heritage. The program includes Three Nocturnes for Violin, Cello and Piano by Ernest Bloch, Duo for Flute and Piano by Aaron Copland, Gershwin s Preludes for Piano, Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, No. 1, Op. 49 by Felix Mendelssohn, Window for Viola and Piano by David Ludwig, Sonata for Cello and Harp, Op. 208 by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Arrowhead for Flute, Viola and Harp by Eric Zeizl. The audience is invited to attend a dessert reception with the artists following the concert.

TICKET INFORMATION Tickets are $15 or $10 for seniors and students and will be available at the door. Members of Temple Israel and their accompanying guests are admitted free. To reserve tickets or for more information, call 917-834-5399, or send an email to musiciansoflenoxhill@gmail.com. Temple Israel of the City of New York is located at 112 East 75th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues, and can be easily reached on the 6 train (77th Street station). Parking is available in nearby garages. Featured performers include Jae-Kyuck Cho, piano, Judy Kang, violin, Andy Lin, viola, Alberto Parrini, cello, Soo-Kyung Park, flute and Jessica Zhou, harp. Each of these musicians, who met as students at The Juilliard School, are young rising stars who perform with major orchestras and ensembles around the world and have won many of the most prestigious music competitions. The concert, which is an annual event now in its 10th year, is a living tribute to the memory of Dr.Hyman Levy and his son, Jerrold Levy, made possible by a gift to Temple Israel by Mrs. Muriel Levy.

In endowing the annual concert, Mrs. Levy sought to promote the outstanding talents of the Musicians of Lenox Hill and to feature the work of a living Jewish composer. This year s featured composer is David Ludwig, whose arrangement of his work Window for Viola and Piano will be premiered at this event. Mr. Ludwig serves on the faculty of the Curtis Institute. His Concertino was one of the top ten most frequently performed orchestral works by a living composer in 2007. The Philadelphia Inquirer has called his music "entrancing...promising to speak for the sorrows of this generation , and The New York Times praised his work for its expressive directness . Says Artistic Director Soo-Kyung Park I fell in love with every piece on this program. The number of great musicians and composers of Jewish faith or heritage is amazing, and I hope that adults as well as children of all faiths will attend to enjoy the wonderful artistic gifts these composers have given us. *****

Judith Shatin Premiere in Minnesota

Judith Shatin's upcoming premiere of the orchestrated version of Songs of War and Peace, will take place on Sunday, May 4 at 3 p.m.
at St. Mary's Cathedral
25 8th Ave. So,
St. Cloud, MN.
Songs of War and Peace is a setting of four powerful Israeli poems on the topic, in outstanding translations by American and Israeli poets. The new version was commissioned by the Minnesota Center Chorale. The premiere performance will be conducted by J. Michele Edwards.

Another performance of the composer's work, the Chai Variations on Eliahu HaNavi
with pianist Jose Lopez, will take place
on May 4, at 3:00 p.m.
Bass Museum
2121 Park Ave.
Miami Beach, FL.

Choral Music Publishing

Looking for choral music for your group? ECS Publishing npw has a division that publishes Jewish choral music. It is edited by Dr. Stanley Hoffman, a composer and Chief music editor. The catalog is growing. Currently it includes works by Robert Applebaum, Judith Zaimont, Stanley Hoffman, Bella Gottesman, Vladimir Heyfetz, Mark Zukerman (Sutzkever, Olshansky, Bugatch and more). http://www.ecspublishing.com/jewishMusic.html Dr. Stanley Hoffman, an editor at ECS publishing, has enlarged the Jewish choral composition catalogue at ECS. The catalogue is growing and is available online. ECS Publishing is the parent company of E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Galaxy Music Corporation, Highgate Press, Ione Press, and the record label, ARSIS Audio. ECS incorporated in 1993 in Boston, Massachusetts. ECS Publishing is the exclusive American distributer for Édition Delrieu, Gaudia Music and Arts, Vireo Press, Dunstan House, and Randol Bass Music. ECS is also a non-exclusive distributor of many Stainer and Bell Ltd. products. E. C. Schirmer Music Company remains one of a few American independent classical music publishers in business today.

Pro Musica Hebraica Started

Jim Loeffler announces the news that the Pro Musica Hebraica will launch their inaugural concert. The new organization has website with details about the upcoming April concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC featuring the musicians of the Juilliard School with a guest appearance by Itzhak Perlman. www.promusicahebraica.org
Pro Musica Hebraica Inaugural Concert
The Musicians of The Juilliard School featuring Itzhak Perlman

The Terrace Theater
The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
Thursday, April 10, 7:30 PM
For ticket info: http://www.promusicahebraica.org/ti.html This concert will feature some of classical music’s premier young voices from the Juilliard School of Music along with a special appearance by the legendary Itzhak Perlman, accompanied by his long-time collaborator, pianist Rohan De Silva. The performers include Juilliard’s Graduate Resident Quartet Biava String Quartet (Austin Hartman and Hyunsu Ko, violins, Mary Persin, viola, and Jason Calloway, cello) together with guest artists clarinetist Tibi Cziger, bassist Andrew Roitstein and percussionists Alexander Lipowski and Michael Caterisano and the N-E-W Trio (Andrew Wan, violin, Gal Nyska, cello, and Julio Elizalde, piano).

Works to be performed will include several rare masterworks from the early twentieth-century Russian Jewish school of composers. These include Alexander Krein’s 1910 Jewish Sketches, #2, Joel Engel’s Dybbuk Suite (1922), Leo Zeitlin’s Eli Zion (1914), Solomon Rosowsky’s Fantastic Dance, and Mikhail Gnesin’s Requiem Trio (1943). Complementing these older pieces will be a performance of composer Osvaldo Golijov’s contemporary classic, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (1994). For further information on these pieces, please see The Musical Tradition.

For information on purchasing tickets, http://www.promusicahebraica.org/ti.html

Symphony No. 4 Homage in memory of the Holocaust

The 24th. of January 2008, at 9, PM , there will be a premiere performance of Alfono Rega,'s Symphony n°4 in 6 movements written as a homage in memory of the Holocaust. This event will take place at the Conservatory of Milan contemporaneously with the inauguration of the Holocaust Museum situated in the railway station. of Milan, Italy.

The concert is free. It will be on behalf of the Associazione Luciano Elmo Onlus in memory of Luciano Elmo, who was a Lawyer, sent in concentration camp and the only survivor of his group. He is recalled for having save a great number of Jews, and received military decorations several times.

The Symphony The Holocaust brings back to present days tonal and romantic music, has been recorded some weeks ago in Milan and will be performed by the Cantelli Orchestra, one of the most famous Orchestra of Milan, together with the Costanzo Porta Choir of Cremona. HOMAGE TO THE MEMORY
On behalf of Associazione Avv. Luciano Elmo. Onlus
THURSDAY 24TH OFJANUARY 2008 at 9, PM
SALA VERDI OF THE CONSERVATORY OF MILANO
(Via del Consevatorio-MM:1-San Babila)
CANTELLI ORCHESTRA
COSTANZO PORTA CHOIRE
CONDUCTOR: HEINRICH UNTERHOFER

PROGRAMME
FRANZ SCHUBERT:SYMPHONY N°5 IN SI BEMOLLE D.485
ALFONSO REGA: SYMPHONY n° 4 The HOLOCAUST IN DO MINOR
Still Awarded at New York A great return of romantic music

Free entrance
For yourself as well as for all your friends and relatives Donations welcome

For informations: www:orchestracantelli.it E-mail: info@orchestracantelli.it E-mail: semafoccor@katamail.com Tel. 3491369462---328850319- SYMPHONY N° 4 in DO minor : The HOLOCAUST

This concert is the first performance of the symphony n° 4 in do minor The Holocaust composed by ALFONSO REGA .
The composer, Alfonso Rega, has been awarded the IBLA Prize several times at New York for his music; for the Symphony The Holocaust as well as for other Symphonies he composed.

The composer also wants his music to congtribute to an intense waring for future generations so that these types of atrocities will never happen again.

The Symphony is divided in 6 movements which explain this tragedy:
1° The forced gatheringb 2° The travel 3° O! What a pain (The prison in camps)-
4° The Holocaust 5° Dream of spring 6° Liberation.


Alfonso Rega is a 66 year old Italian living in Milano. He studied the piano during 8 years and composition from 1995. He composed 8 Symphonic Poems: 1° Birth of Davide 2° Birth of Myriam. 3° The Millennium- 4° The Holocaust 5° The Birth of the Universe - 6° The Divine Comedy-7° The 11 September. 8° Romeo and Juliet. Plus about 400 short pieces. He also entered music competitions and won at Bologna with the 4th.Movement of the Symphonic 11 September The Pietas for violin and in 2006 in New York with the Symphony The Holocaust

Merkin Hall features Feinsmith NY Premieres

On January 19, 2008 at 8pm, the Francisco based Feinsmith Quartet (www.feinsmithquartet.com), founded by New Yorker Daniel David Feinsmith makes it New York Debut at the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Concert Hall (129 West 67th Street). Known for its powerful new sound with an ecstatic spiritual bent, the Feinsmith Quartet will appear in this one-night-only concert with special guest Scott Amendola. A super-group in the most complete sense of the term, the Feinsmith Quartet features Jennifer Culp on cello, Michael Manring on bass, Gyan Riley on guitar, and Christopher Taylor on piano. The group will perform original compositions by founder and artistic director Feinsmith, guitarist Riley and bassist Manring. Tickets are $25 in advance; $30 at the door. Student and senior advance tickets are $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Ticket may be obtained by calling the Merkin Center Box Office at (212) 501-3330 or online at www.kaufman-center.org. The January 19 concert program presents Feinsmith Quartet performing Elokim (2006) and the East Coast premiere of Feinsmith’s Havaya (2007). Both Elokim and Havaya, composed for the Feinsmith Quartet, are spiritual works, their titles reflecting names of God in Hebrew in the Jewish tradition. Elokim is a work that exalts in the creative power of the Divine, and Havaya is a work of longing for a closeness to God. Joined by special guest, drummer Amendola, the Quartet performs the East Coast premieres of new arrangements for Melismantra (2006) and The Changes Stay The Same (2006) by guitarist Riley, both improvisatory works with links to Hindustani Raga music. Rounding out the program is Greetings, Earthlings! by Manring

Leroy Osmon releases Zeraim chamber work

Announcing a new chamber work by composer Leroy Osmon: Zeraim from The Book of Ruth
Scored for: Mezzo Soprano and Soprano Saxophone accompanied by Chamber Ensemble (Flute, Bass Clarinet, Horn, Cello and Percussion).
www.rbcmusic.com 1-800-548-0917) and has been recorded by members of the faculty from the School of Music Tennessee Tech University.

Gustav Mahler Recital in Washington Jan 7

Gustav Mahler Recital, Hermine Haselböck, mezzosoprano Washington January 7 and New York City January 9 and 13, 2008

The young Austrian Mezzosopran, whose International recital and concert performances have led her to Carnegie Hall - New York, Musikverein Vienna, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Frauenkirche Dresden and the Teatro San Carlo Naples as well as to festivals such as the Styriarte, KlangBogen Vienna, Wiener Festwochen, Kunstfest Weimar, MDR Musiksommer Leipzig, Easterfestival of sacred Music in Brno and the Haydnfestival Eisenstadt, will perform Recitals with G. Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder und Rückertlieder (Russell Ryan, piano) on 7. January 2008 in the Austrian Cultural Forum - Washington DC and on 9th and 13th January 2008 in the Austrian Cultural Forum - New York City. Tickets available:
Austrian Cultural Forum,
11 East 52nd Street, New York, NY 10022
phone: 212 319 5300, fax: 212 644 8660,
mkarning@acfny.org and

Austrian Cultural Forum,
Embassy of Austria,
3524 International Court,
N.W.Washington, D.C. 20008-3027,
e mail culture@austria.orgf,
Tel: 202-895- 6714, Fax: 202-895-6750.

Mezzo-soprano Hermine Haselböck, born in Melk Austria, studied at the University of performing Arts in Vienna under Rita Streich as well as the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany under Ingeborg Ruß, qualifying both with performers and vocal education diploma. Master classes with Sena Jurinac, Marjana Lipovek and Christa Ludwig provided her with the vital impetus to pursue an artistic career. Hermine Haselböck has collaborated with conductors such as Gustav Kuhn, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Fabio Luisi, Bertrand de Billy, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Manfred Honeck and orchestras such as the MDR Sinfonieorchester, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Wiener Symphoniker, RSO Wien, Camerata Salzburg and Dresdner Philharmonie. Her comprehensive repertoire includes Bach (Magnificat, Matthew Passion, Christmas-, Easter-Oratorio), Beethoven (Missa Solemnis, Mass in C major, Symphony No. 9), Mozart (Requiem) and Mendelssohn (Elijah), as well as Mahler (Kindertoten-, Rückert-, Songs of a Wayfayrer), Wolf (Italian Songbook, Goethe-Songs), Berg, Schönberg, Zemlinsky and Schreker. Her opera roles include Fiorilla (Il Turco in Italia / Rossini), Mrs. P. (The man who mistook his wife for a hat / M. Nyman), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Amore (Dafne in Lauro / Fux), 2. Dame (Magic flute), Mercedes (Carmen), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte) and Frauenschatten (Die Flammen / Erwin Schulhoff). She has performed at opera houses such as the Wiener Volksoper, Theater an der Wien and the Grand Theatre de la Ville Luxemburg.

Hermine Haselböck, acclaimed by music critics as " ... a mezzo of rare, amber glow in her lower register" (Matthew Gurewitsch in OPERA NOW ), was awarded the Radio Österreich1 Pasticcio Prize for the CD "Songs by Zemlinsky" in 2004 and the International Alexander Zemlinsky Prize in 2005, presented to her at a concert in the Musikverein, Vienna. Additional CD recordings: G. Donizetti: Adelia (Sony-BMG / 2007), F. Schreker: Lieder (Bridge Records / 2008), F. Schubert: As Dur Messe (ORF / 2008), L. v. Beethoven: Missa Solemnis (Sony-BMG / 2008). Next projects are: J.S.Bach: Passion St Matthew/Konzerthaus Vienna,Auditorium Bolzano with conductor Gustav Kuhn ; Zemlinsky Maeterlinck Songs with conductor Martin Sieghart and the Arnheim Philharmonic orchestre/Netherland, G. Verdi Requiem/ Haydn festival Eisenstadt; LvBeethoven: Missa Solemnis, cond Gustav Kuhn, Tyrolian Festival; G. Mahler/Lied von der Erde, Toblach, M.Vorzellner piano, H. Pecoraro, tenor/CD Recording; W.A. Mozart: Magic flute, 2. Lady/Thater ander wien, cond J.C.Spinosi with, D. Damrau, J.Lemalu, Shawn Mathey; H, Wolf. Italienisches Liederbuch with A. Kaimbacher; J. HAydn Nelson Mass, MDR Leipzig.

Good News for Choirs of Jewish Music

The music of Aminadav Aloni is being made available for free download (as pdf files) through the website of the Aminadav Aloni Music Foundation www.alonimusic.org They are now offering almost all of the sheet music in the catalogue on the website as free downloads upon request. However, the links are not yet up, but those interested can contact Richard A. Braun, MD aamf@socal.rr.com Vice President, Aminadav Aloni Music Foundation for those requests with serious interest in acquiring the music.

Of Daniel Pearl on Armistice Day-- DOWNTOWN CHAMBER & OPERA PLAYERS

EAST VILLAGE CONCERT SERIES DOWNTOWN MUSIC PRODUCTIONS MIMI STERN-WOLFE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
St. Marks in the Bowery (10th St & Second Av)
ARMISITICE DAY
PREMIERES & COMMISSIONS-- WAR & PIECES
SUNDAY* NOVEMBER 11 @ 3PM

DOWNTOWN CHAMBER & OPERA PLAYERS
MIMI STERN-WOLFE, CONDUCTOR, PIANIST
:
CAROLYN STEINBERG: Secular Requiem: 1. "Chorale," 2. "Of Daniel Pearl." 3. "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep." 4. "Chorale", String Quartet & Vocal Quartet; SIMA WOLF (commission): Ashbah (Ghosts) (Brian Turner) for Violin, Cello, Piano, Narrator; DAVID THOMAS: War Song for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano & Piano; EDDIE VENEGAS: Encounters for String Quartet; DAVID HOLLISTER: Listen Here, Joe; Performers: Eileen Clarke, Soprano; Megan Friar, Mezzo-Soprano; Kurt Alakulppi, Tenor; Ivan Thomas, Narrator, Bass; Matt Fieldes, double bass; Sweet Plantain String Quartet; Downtown Piano Trio
Information : dmpmimi@msn.com; Suggested donation: $10-$15;
Reservations: 212 477-1594; www.downtownmusicproductions.org

Jewish Composers may submit Peformance Requests

An open letter from the American Society for Jewish Music:

Dear Jewish music composer:

The American Society for Jewish Music would like to consider your music for performance at its annual concert at the Center for Jewish History in New York City on Monday, June 2nd, 2008. Your music will be given a first-class performance in a prominent New York venue. Please submit by November 16, 2007 one vocal work for one or two solo voices with keyboard or small chamber ensemble accompaniment. Pieces should be about 4-10 minutes long and well-crafted. (The majority of the committee has a preference for "Art Music.") The piece should have some sort of Jewish musical, thematic or textual content, and the composer must be living or working in the U.S.
Please send score and recording (CD or Cassette) to:

Dr. Eliott Kahn, Music Archivist
Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary
3080 Broadway
New York, NY 10027

Feel free to contact me with questions.
elkahn@jtsa.edu

Jewish Artists Line Up This Fall atThe Museum of Jewish Heritage

The Museum of Jewish Heritage is pleased to announce its concert line up for October and November of this year. All events will take place at the Museum of Jewish Hertiage, 36 Battery Place in Lower Manhattan.
www.mjhnyc.org

Monday, October 8, 7 P.M
Tuesday, October 9, 7 P.M.
Wednesday, October 10, 7 P.M.

Idan Raichel
Songs for Peace: The Acoustic Series
Featuring Idan Raichel; with Marta Gomez, Somi, Cabra Casay, and Itamar Doari
Join dynamic Isaraeli artist Idan Raichel for his very first series of intimate acoustic concerts in New York. Idan blends the unique sounds of Israel's cultural tradition with styles frm around the world for a sound that Billboard Magazine calls a "multi-ethnic tour de force." Showcasing new and old musical partnerships, Idan and artists will celebrate the universal language of music.

Tickets $30-$45 and are available online at www.mjhnyc.org or by calling the Museum Box Office at 646.437.4202. A limited number of VIP tickets are available for $75 and include admission to a wine-reception with Idan and guests after the October 10th show.

*** Wednesday, October 17, 7 P.M.
Vladimir Feltsman
Virtuoso Pianist: Music from Poland and Russia
This fall, dynamic artist Vladimir Feltsman will perform music from Poland's keyboard master, Chopin, and one of Russia's most dramatic piano pieces: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Feltman's celebrated version of the epic work has been called "electrifying" and the "best live performance" by top critics from The New York Times to the Seattle Times. Mr Feltsman will be interviewed in a post-concert conversation.

Tickets are available online at www.mjhnyc.org or by calling the Museum Box Office at 646.347.4202 and are $35 for adults, $25 for students and $15 for members.
***
Wednesday, November 7, 7 P.M.
Misha and Cipa Dichter: Two- and Four-Hand Piano Masterworks

World-famous pianists Misha and cipa Dichter are back for another evening of superlative piano performances. The New York Times called their last sold-out appearance at the Museum-Babi Yar Remembered: Yuvtushenko and Shostakovich in Word and Song-"illuminating."

Equally at ease in the solo piano repetoire or playing together, the program will feature the Dichters performing music by two beloved Jewish-American icons, Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, in Copland's El Salon Mexico, arranged by Bernstein. Misha Dichter will also be performing solo favorites by Brahms, Schumann, and Liszt. The Dichters will be interviewed in a post-concert conversation.

Tickets are available online at www.mjhnyc.org or by calling the Museum Box Office at 646.347.4202 and are $35 for adults, $25 for students and $15 for members.

Jay Gottlieb in Seattle performing Messiaen

Northwest Mahler Orchestra
Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Benaroya Hall, 200 University Street, Seattle, WA

First Seattle performance !
Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony

Northwest Mahler Orchestra
Geoffrey Simon, conductor
Jay Gottlieb, piano solo
Thomas Bloch, ondes Martenot solo

Presented by the Northwest Mahler Festival, Seattle
Information: www.nwmahlerorchestra.org Benaroya Hall is located in the heart of downtown Seattle directly across 2nd Avenue from the Seattle Art Museum. Benaroya Hall is bounded on the north by Union Street, and on the south by University Street; on the east by 3rd Avenue and on the west by 2nd Avenue.

See the Seattle Symphony web site for directions and parking: Benaroya Hall Directions http://www.seattlesymphony.org/benaroya/guide/location/locate.aspx

Svigals-Rushefsky in "Mahler's World: Jewish Music in the Hapsburg Empire"

Klezmer violin superstar Alicia Svigals returns to the Maverick on July 14 at 8:00 p.m. with tsimblist Pete Rushefsky.

Ms. Svigals and Mr. Rushefsky brought down the house last summer at Maverick, and this year¹s concert is called "Mahler¹s World: Jewish Music in the Hapsburg Empire." The concert is part of Maverick¹s season-long celebration of the centenary of Gustav Mahler¹s arrival in America to lead the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

Classical concerts are Saturday evenings at 6:00 and Sunday afternoons at 3:00, with jazz, world music, and klezmer on selected Saturday nights at 8:00. Young people¹s concerts are Saturday mornings at 11:00.

The box office opens an hour before each concert; the hall opens half an hour before curtain time. Except for the last weekend of the season, ticket prices are $20 for adults and $5 for students. Books of ten tickets, to be used in any combination at any regular concert throughout the season, may be purchased at the box office for $150 or by writing to Maverick Concerts, P.O. Box 9, Woodstock, NY 12498. Children under 12 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Donors of $50 or more to the sustaining fund of the series may attend the season-closer Friends of Maverick Concert.

Tickets are general admission with no reserved seating, and a special ³rock bottom² area provides pay-what-you-can seating. The Maverick Concert Hall is accessible to persons with disabilities.

The Maverick Concert Hall is located on Maverick Road, near Woodstock, approximately one mile from the road¹s junctions with either Route 375 or Route 28. For additional information, visit www.maverickconcerts.org , call the Maverick¹s recorded message line at 845-679-8217, or send e-mail to maverickmuse@aol.com. Klezmer is the traditional, celebratory music of eastern European Jewry, played in the old world and the new at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other simkhes, or happy occasions. Euphoric, ecstatic, and heart-wrenching, its beauty and high emotion have made it a worldwide phenomenon, as electrifying on the concert stage as it is joyful to dance to with family and friends. Klezmer music in this country has typically been jazzy brass bands led by clarinets, but earlier Eastern European klezmer ensembles were string bands led by violins accompanied by the tsimbl. A stringed instrument played like a xylophone, the tsimbl is played with mallets padded with cotton or leather. The multiple strings at each pitch give the tsimbl its rich and haunting sonority. It was a popular instrument in klezmer bands across Eastern Europe from the 1600's through the first decades of the twentieth century. The instrument is still quite popular in parts of Eastern Europe and Balkans and is often associated with Rom (gypsy) musicians. Gustav Mahler was a towering figure in the artistic and intellectual hotbed that was Vienna at the end of the 19th Century. Mahler used, in his symphonies and vocal works, music from both ³high² and ³low² culture to a degree unknown before this. He was born to Jewish parents in what is now the Czech Republic and, to a great extent, the klezmer music of eastern Europe was a root source of melodic and harmonic material for him. Violinist/composer Alicia Svigals, a founder of the Klezmatics and of the all-women band Mikveh, is considered by many to be the world's foremost klezmer fiddler. During the past decade, she almost singlehandedly revived klezmer fiddle playing, which came close to extinction in the last century; traditional klezmer violin style is now being played again by hundreds of her students, including most of today's best professional players. She taught and toured with violinist Itzhak Perlman, who recorded her compositions as duets with Ms. Svigals accompanied by the Klezmatics. Pete Rushefsky is a leading revivalist of the tsimbl. He is also executive director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, a New York not-for-profit dedicated to preserving and nurturing the performing arts traditions of immigrant and ethnic communities. He is a well-known performer and lecturer on klezmer and other traditional musics and has a number of published articles to his credit. Maverick Concerts, near Woodstock, New York, is the oldest continuous summer chamber music series in America. The Maverick Concert Hall was built by hand in 1916 in the pristine Catskill woodland, and now it is a multi-starred attraction on the National Register of Historic Places. Presenting concerts by nationally and internationally known performers at affordable prices, Maverick continues the vision of Hervey White, founder of the collaborative 101-year-old Maverick Art Colony.

Yamaha is The Official Piano of Maverick Concerts; the C7 grand piano on the Maverick stage appears through the generosity of Yamaha Music Corporation of America.

Maverick Concerts, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, is supported by The Maverick Endowment Fund, Friends of Maverick, public and private foundations, local businesses, the Towns of Woodstock and Hurley, and by public funds from The New York State Council on The Arts, a state agency. The commissioning and performance of the chamber orchestra version of ³Final Alice² is supported by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

TEREZÍN MEMORIAL Concerts

TEREZÍN MEMORIAL

presents

7 CANDLES

Gideon Klein (1919 - 1945)
Partita for string orchestra (Arr. Vojtech Saudek)

Pavel Haas (1899 - 1944)
Studie for string orchestra

Irena Kosikova
7 Candles for cello and string orchestra (2006) - Premiere

Talich chamber orchestra
Frantisek Brikcius - cello
Jan Talich - conductor

Thursday 10th May 2007, 2pm,
Terezin - Magdeburska kasarna (Tyrsova ulice, Terezín, 411 55, Czech republic).

http://www.Pamatnik-Terezin.cz
http://www.Talich.com
http://www.iKosik.com
http://www.Brikcius.com

Rodeph Sholom Chamber Music Features Music of Schulhoff, Mendelssohn and Ginastera

New York City’s Congregation Rodeph Sholom
Presents Free Chamber Music Concerts for the Community
in Schnurmacher Chapel

On March 24th at 1 pm, Congregation Rodeph Sholom Chamber Music Series will present its second concert featuring world class musicians in the congenial and intimate setting of the Schnurmacher Chapel. Guest artists Susan Rotholz, flute, Mayuki Fukuhara and Andrea Schultz, violins, Sarah Adams, viola, and Eliot Bailen, cello and Artistic Director, will perform works by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Ervin Schulhoff (1894-1942), and Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). The free concert is open to the public at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 West 83rd Street, New York. For more information, call 212 362-8800, x1337 or email eleder@rodephsholom.org. The March 24th program features flute and string quartets in works ranging from the 19th century Classic-Romantic tradition of Mendelssohn to the Schoenberg influenced 20th century Expressionistic music. Czech composer and pianist Ervin Schulhoff, who perished in the Holocaust at the Wurzberg camp, wrote music influenced by the art and politics of 1930’s Europe, embracing Dada and Jazz while continuing to express his heritage in the Czech folk music tradition. Internationally acclaimed composer pianist, Alberto Ginastera, became renown for modern Neo-Expressionist masterworks and commissions while, similarly, tapping the rich resources in the rhythms, melodies, and spirit of the musica criolla of his native Argentina. Impresiones de la Puna (1934), Ginastera’s popular early composition, follows the plaintive opening quena, named for the Incan flute, and poignant second movement, with a vibrant dance in the closing movement. Five Pieces for String Quartet (1923) by Schulhoff renders a lively jazz interpretation of a classic Baroque dance suite. Felix Mendelssohn’s intellectual and artistic passion for chamber music reached its maturity and personal clarity in String Quartet no. 3 in D Major, Op. 44, no. 1 (1838) composed in Liepzig at the height of his career. His talents as composer, pianist, and violinist, prodigious output for the chamber musician, and international influence as orchestra conductor and festival organizer propelled chamber music to the forefront of mid-19th century music and and helped secure the future of the genre in the repertory. The RODEPH SHOLOM CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES is presented to bring both the best of the chamber music repertory to the community and to explore the Jewish heritage in music. The concerts are free. Please rsvp to enjoy a light lunch before the concert. The third and final concert of the season will be May 19th and will feature Jazz pianist Ted Rosenthal, bass player Thomson Kneeland, and vocal selections by mezzo-soprano Cantor Rebecca Garfein. For more information, call 212 362-8800, x1337 or email eleder@rodephsholom.org.

World Premiere of Symphony 1 by Meira Warshauer in South Carolina

World Premiere Performance of Meira Warshauer Symphony No. 1 Living, Breathing Earth by South Carolina Philharmonic on March 24

The World Premiere performance of Meira Warshauer’s Symphony No. 1 – “Living, Breathing Earth” will be given by the South Carolina Philharmonic, Nicholas Smith, Music Director, at 7 PM on Saturday, March 24, 2007 as part of their Master Series 7 concert at the Koger Center for the Arts, 1051 Greene Street in Columbia, South Carolina.

Tickets for the March 24 concert are $40, $32, $23, $16 and $13. For tickets and more concert information, please call the South Carolina Philharmonic box office at 803-254-7445 or visit them online at http://www.scphilharmonic.com/buynow.html.

This new work, commissioned by the South Carolina Philharmonic, Western Piedmont Symphony of North Carolina, and the Dayton Philharmonic of Ohio (their Premiere performances will be given on April 26 and 28), has been described by the composer: “the title, Living, Breathing Earth, came to me in contemplating the image of the rainforests as lungs of the earth. I felt our planet, alive with all variety of creatures and plants living in symbiosis with each other, breathing in and out, and the planet as a whole, pulsing with breath.” You can read Carson Cooman’s Music & Vision Daily interview with the composer about the new work at http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2007/01/meira-warshauer.htm.

Other works on the program include William Walton’s Façade, Sally Smith, Narrator and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Marina Lomazov, pianist.

Founded 42 years ago, the South Carolina Philharmonic has become one of the leading orchestras in the southeast. The South Carolina Philharmonic's mission is to continue providing quality symphonic music for their audiences, broaden public awareness and enjoyment of symphonic music, expand educational music programs for elementary, middle and high school students, support their Youth Orchestra program that serves more than 200 young instrumentalists and collaborate with other local arts groups to reach a more diverse audience. Maestro Nicholas Smith has been in charge of orchestras and opera companies for more than thirty years on both sides of the Atlantic. He has conducted orchestras in a dozen countries, making him adept at communicating with few words. Many concerts have been broadcast on radio and television and he has recorded CDs with Finnish, British and Czech orchestras. Much more about him and the orchestra at http://www.scphilharmonic.com/. For a list of season sponsors, visit http://www.scphilharmonic.com/sponsors.html.

Meira Warshauer’s compositions have been performed and recorded to critical acclaim throughout the United States and in Israel, Europe, and Asia. A graduate of Harvard, New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of South Carolina, Dr. Warshauer studied composition with Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon Goodwin. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as the America Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the South Carolina Arts Commission. In 2000, she received the first Art and Cultural Achievement Award from the Jewish Historical Society of S. Carolina.

Dr. Warshauer is a Visiting Lecturer at Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina . Her CDs include the soundtrack to the documentary Land of Promise: The Jews of South Carolina and Spirals of Light, chamber music and poetry (by Ani Tuzman) on themes of enlightenment, on the Kol Meira label and "Revelation" for orchestra, included on the MMC CD Robert Black Conducts. Her music is published by Oxford University Press, MMB Music, World Music Press and Kol Meira Publications. Her latest Bracha Newsletter, containing full program notes for Symphony No. 1, is online at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/jan07/MW_nws_010907.htm. You can find much more about her at http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/.

VIKLARBO Chamber Ensemble

DATE: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
TIME: 7:30 PM
LOCATION: Valley Beth Shalom
ADDRESS: 15739 Ventura Boulevard, Encino 91436
WEBSITE: www.jmcla.org
www.jmcla.org DESCRIPTION:
The Jewish Music Commission of LA presents the elite Los Angeles-based VIKLARBO Chamber Ensemble in a program that includes new American Jewish music by David Lefkowitz and Maria Newman. Both of these young Los Angeles-based musicians are in great demand as composers, performers and educators. Also on the evening program are works by Leonard Bernstein and Robert Schumann.

The ensemble features Maria Newman, Violin; Scott Hosfeld, Viola; Sebastian Toettcher, cello; Wendy Prober, piano; and Amanda Walker, clarinet.

Tickets are $10 in advance; $15 at the door. For reservations and information, call Valley Beth Shalom (818) 788-6000 or E-mail jmcla@socal.rr.com

Schola Cantorum on Hudson Explores Judeo-Christian Choral Music Sacred Bridge

Three mid-March Choral Concerts in Caldwell, Jersey City and Manhattan will light up a sacred bridge.
Schola Cantorum on Hudson, the critically acclaimed 30-voice choral ensemble based in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, will perform choral music highlighting the Judeo-Christian heritage with its 12th Ethnic Celebration Series Concert in three venues. Entitled Sacred Bridge, this second concert program of Schola's season will first be performed at Caldwell College on Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell, New Jersey, on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 4 pm, reprised on Sunday, March 18, at 4 pm, at Historic Holy Rosary Church, 344 Sixth Street, between Monmouth and Brunswick Streets in Jersey City. The third concert will be performed at St. Malachy's Church, The Actors' Chapel, 239 West 49th Street (between Broadway and Eighth Avenue) in New York City, Monday, March 19 at 7:30 pm.

The ensemble, under the artistic direction of Dr. Deborah Simpkin King, will sing works that exemplify the Judeo-Christian “bridge” by composers such as Barber, Thompson, Rossi, Di Lasso, Mendelssohn, Lewandowski and Braun.

Tickets for all performances are $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and students. Advance tickets and season subscriptions may be purchased at a reduced price online at www.scholaonhudson.org, by phone at (201) 918-3011, or by email at scholatix@gmail.com.

Organizations, educational institutions, and groups interested in purchasing a block of ten or more tickets receive a special group rate. Please email SCHGroupSales@gmail.com for more information.

Additional information regarding this concert or the ensemble and its activities can be obtained online at www.scholaonhudson.org or by calling 201-918-3009.

Meira Warshauer Symphony No. 1 World Premiere

World Premiere Performance of Meira Warshauer Symphony No. 1 Living, Breathing Earth by Western Piedmont Symphony of North Carolina was a great success. The two other orchestras who helped commission the work will have first performances in March and April.
The Symphony was commissioned by the Western Piedmont Symphony, the South Carolina Philharmonic (their Premiere performance will be on March 24 - http://scphilharmonic.com/) and the Dayton Philharmonic (their Premiere performances will be given on April 26 and 28 - http://www.daytonphilharmonic.com/).

You can find much more about Meira Warshauer at http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/.
The greatly successful World Premiere performance of Meira Warshauer’s Symphony No. 1 – “Living, Breathing Earth” was given by the Western Piedmont Symphony, John Gordon Ross, Conductor, on Saturday, February 3, 2007 as part of their Masterworks III concert at the First Baptist Church in Hickory, North Carolina.

Classical Voice North Carolina’s review of the premiere performance included this paragraph, “In the first movement, nature could not provide better sound effects of the cicadas, the orchestra buzzing and chirping throughout. The second movement recalls a nighttime canoe ride in the Peruvian rainforest, with the sparkling reflections of stars and fireflies in the dark, still water. This section is so gorgeous and emotional that it could bring tears to one's eyes. The third depicts the playful dance of the butterflies and sunlight at the river's edge. The fourth movement takes us into space, where we look onto the living, breathing, pulsating earth and its many changing colors.” The review also praised the Western Piedmont Symphony’s performance and concluded with, “"Living, Breathing Earth" deserves to be heard many, many more times, not only for its message that life on earth is in danger, and that we must be good stewards of the environment, but because it is such beautiful music.” Read the complete review at http://cvnc.org/reviews/2007/022007/WPiedmontS.html

Her latest Bracha Newsletter, containing full program notes for Symphony No. 1, is online at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/jan07/MW_nws_010907.htm You can also read Carson Cooman’s marvelous Three Questions Before the First Night interview in England’s Music & Vision daily at http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2007/01/meira-warshauer.htm.

BAM BAM BAM Krakauer Clarinet on Golijov

On Saturday, March 10, 8p.m., David Krakauer will be performing Osvaldo Golijov's "The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind" at BAM with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. It's the world premiere of the newly orchestrated version of this music, so there will be quite a bit of excitement. The program is called "Bridge to the Beyond" as part of the Steinhardt Jewish Heritage Festival at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). at the Howard Gilman Opera House. Peter J Sharp Building. Brooklyn Academy of Music 30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217 For all the details, go to the Brooklyn Philharmonic website:http://www.brooklynphilharmonic.org/events_calendar.php?page=calendar#bb This concert features works by two of the greatest Jewish orchestral composers, Gustav Mahler and Osvaldo Golijov. Golijov was raised in Argentina by Eastern European parents and combines klezmer and tango with orchestral music, making him a completely unique voice in the world of music. The program includes the New York premiere of Golijov’s newly-orchestrated Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind about 12th century Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor, featuring popular klezmer clarinet player David Krakauer.

Beethoven & Golijov

Audiences of the Marin Symphony’s Sunday, February 25 and Tuesday, February 27 concerts will be treated to two epic works in one program: Beethoven’s majestic Symphony No. 7 and contemporary composer Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, performed by solo clarinetist Todd Palmer. Also on the program is Kodály’s Galanta Dances. Alasdair Neale conducts.

The Marin Symphony concerts will be held on Sunday, February 25 and Tuesday, February 27 at 7:30pm at Marin Center, San Rafael, California. Tickets at $65, $50 and $27 are available at 415.499.6800 (students half price). Free pre-concert talks with Maestro Neale begin at 6:30pm in the concert hall. Audience members are invited to meet clarinetist Todd Palmer, Maestro Neale and members of the orchestra immediately after the Tuesday, February 27 concert at the Symphony’s regular Tuesday Night Wrap Party, Four Points by Sheraton Lounge, 1010 Northgate Drive, San Rafael. No host bar. Click www.marinsymphony.org/accessible.htm

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 needs no introduction. Written in 1811-12, its second movement, the stately and sweepingly melodic Allegretto, was immediately so well received that the audience of the 1813 premiere requested its encore. In the centuries since its first performance, the work has become one of the most popular in the classical music repertoire.

According to critics and performers alike, Golijov’s work, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, is destined to follow suit in its popularity. Originally conceived as a clarinet quintet, the work was recorded by soloist Todd Palmer with St. Lawrence String Quartet in 2002 on the EMI Classics label. (Mr. Palmer was awarded a $20,000 recording grant from the National Foundation of Jewish Culture to fund this project.) The recording became one of the top ten best-selling classical music CDs of 2003, receiving two Grammy nominations and the Prelude Award from the Netherlands for best chamber music recording of 2004.

Clarinet soloist Todd Palmer, who will be performing the work with the Marin Symphony on February 25 & 27, says of this work, “It’s too early to put the ‘masterpiece’ label on it, but this is a remarkable piece—musically, the first of its kind.” He observes that the first great clarinet quintet came from Mozart, two hundred years ago. Then, a hundred years later, came the Brahms clarinet quintet. Both works have become pillars of the clarinet repertoire. “I believe (the Golijov work) will become the next great clarinet quintet after the Brahms.” Mr. Palmer adds with a smile, “And it’s coming another hundred years later.”

Marin Symphony audiences will hear a concerto version of this work, brought to the concert hall through the auspices of Magnum Opus, a commissioning project funded by philanthropist Kathryn Gould and designed to provide nine new orchestral works over five years to be premiered by three San Francisco Bay area orchestras: the Marin Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Soloist Palmer notes of the orchestral work, “It has enlarged string forces. It’s the same piece of music, and the big moments of the original quintet sounded orchestral anyway. I think it’s a testament to any great piece of music that it can withstand being made into different versions.”

Listeners—particularly fans of Klezmer music—will find much to love in this piece. A compellingly soulful work, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind blends orchestra, solo clarinet and the inflections of chant and Klezmer rhythms to yield a sound that clarinetist Palmer calls, “emotionally powerful. It’s a very intense work with moments of great beauty.” Undoubtedly, Osvaldo Golijov’s unique compositional style derives from his unusual upbringing in an Eastern European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina. Golijov himself writes of the piece, “The movements of this work sound to me as if written in three of the different languages spoken by the Jewish people throughout our history. This somehow reflects the composition’s epic nature. I hear the prelude and the first movement, the most ancient, in Aramaic; the second movement is in Yiddish, the rich and fragile language of a long exile; the third movement and postlude are in sacred Hebrew.” The Boston Globe echoes these sentiments when it calls the work “a 35-minute survey of Jewish history and Jewish music—full of mystery, pain and celebration.” Isaac the Blind was a 13th century kabbalist rabbi of Provence, France.

Mr. Golijov, 46, ranks among the most sought-after composers in the world. In the past four years alone, he has received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and a commission from New York City’s Metropolitan Opera. In 2000, the premiere of Golijov's St. Mark Passion took the music world by storm. The CD of the premiere of this work, on the Haenssler Classic label, received Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations in 2002. In January and February 2006, Lincoln Center presented a Festival called “The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov,” featuring multiple performances of his major works, chamber music, late nights of Tango and Klezmer, and a night at the Film Society. Future projects include a collaboration with director Francis Ford Coppola on the score of his upcoming film, Youth Without Youth. Other projects include works for the Kronos and St Lawrence quartets, and for Yo-Yo Ma with the Boston Symphony. --

Regina Resnik Presents Crossing All Boundaries

Sunday, March 25, 2:30 P.M.
Regina Resnik, narrator; Katherine Whyte, soprano; Audrey Babcock, mezzo-soprano; Michael Philip Davis, tenor; Milos Repicky, piano; Annaliesa Place, guest violinist
$25 adults, $20 students/seniors, $15 members

Museum of Jewish Heritage: Edmond J. Safra Hall
36 Battery Place
Battery Park
New York, NY 10280

Crossing All Boundaries is the final concert in a three-year-long retrospective on Jewish classical song. Presented and narrated by opera legend Regina Resnik, the program features songs and operas on Jewish themes by famous composers, such as Kaddish by Ravel, the rarely heard Hebrew songs of Glinka, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov, the brilliant and evocative Song Cycle on Jewish Folk Poetry by Shostakovich, and the New York premiere of Letter to Warsaw by Thomas Pasatieri. Classics by Tchaikovsky, Massenet, and Schubert, sung in Yiddish, and originally made popular by the great Jewish singers of the past, round out this unique concert.
Regina Resnik has had an opera career spanning more than 60 years and more than 80 roles in the great international opera houses. She became famous for roles such as Carmen and Mistress Quickly. In 1987, Regina Resnik made her musical theater debut as Fraülein Schneider in Cabaret with Joel Grey, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. Since 1997, she has been the host and narrator of the concert series "Regina Resnik Presents" - which she co-founded and co-produces with her son, tenor and stage director, Michael Philip Davis. The series has become an important presence in New York musical life, having offered such diverse programs as "Beethoven in Song," "The Gypsy in Classical Song," and "The Classic Kurt Weill."

Eleanor Cory Piece to be performed at Mannes

Tuesday, January 30, 2007, 8:00 PM
MANNES FACULTY COMPOSERS CONCERT
Mannes College the New School for Music
150 W. 85th St.(between Amsterdam and Columbus)
New York, NY
212-580-0210
Admission: FREE
Eleanor Cory: Play Within a Play for Solo Piano (1996)
Julia Dusman, piano
Also pieces by Thomas Addison,
Keith Fitch
David Loeb, and
David Tcimpidis

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.

"ZUN MIT A REGN" (Sun and Rain) in St. Petersburg

The Amsterdam Jewish Music Projects Foundation will be taking part in the Russian Centennial Celebration for Dmitri Shostakovich with the programme "Zun mit a regn" (Sun and Rain) that is to be performed at the Shostakovich Conferences in St. Petersburg on 12 and 13 October. The programme, which premiered in the Netherlands, includes chamber music and songs composed by Shostakovich himself and by his friends Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Veniamin Basner. The central source of inspiration for the works on the programme is the music of the Jewish people, oppressed in Russia during the Stalin regime. The works will be performed by singer Sovali (soprano), violinist Grigory Sedukh, cellist Alexander Oratovski and pianist Paul Prenen. The performances are supported by the Wilhelmina E. Jansen Fund.

Concerts:
. 12 October 2006, 7 PM at the Composers Hall, St. Petersburg
. 13 October 2006, 4 PM at the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Museum Apartment (with lecture by Julia Broido)

The complete program includes:
M. Weinberg, Jewish Songs, Op.13 (Y.L. Perets) (1943)
M. Weinberg, Sonata for Cello Solo, No.1, Op.72 (1960)
D. Shostakovich, Prelude and Fugue, Op.87, No.8 in F sharp minor for piano (1950-51)
D. Shostakovich, "From Jewish Folk Poetry", Op.79, Nos.1, 3, 5, 7 (1948)
D. Shostakovich, Piano Trio No.2, Op. 67 (1944)
V. Basner, Poem for Violin and Piano, Op. 7, No.1
V. Basner, Songs from the musical "Jewish Luck", Op. 45 (1994)

From the reviews of previous performances in the Netherlands:

Eindhovens Dagblad: "Brilliant Yiddish lyricism!"

Enschede Synagogue: "The impressive programme went over very well with the audience. Everyone found it fascinating to witness how original Jewish music that was barely known, if at all, was brought back to life.."

Jan Roelofs' review of the concert at Museum 'De Buitenplaats' in Eelde: "How does one describe atmosphere? Not with words like professional or virtuoso, although they were certainly applicable. In any case, the atmosphere of the concert was created by the Jewish sounds, the melancholy and sometimes heartbreaking grief that could be heard, by the sounds and rhythms that said, "I shall persevere and won't let them grind me down," by the Yiddish lyrics translated so professionally they could almost be followed word for word. Yet the atmosphere was of course predominantly determined by (the musicians). In a beautifully structured programme of songs and instrumental works (partly performed as solos), they exhibited their professionalism, virtuosity and above all their pleasure in singing and playing. The warm cello and violin sounds, the beautiful, supple and agile voice and the pianist who conjured up a rich palette of sounds from the grand piano, were important ingredients in the special atmosphere of this concert.."

The DSCH Journal: "This was an unforgettable event in which the musicians gave their all. Bravo!"

Information:
Jewish Music Projects, c/o Sofie van Lier, phone: 020-6623675
Grigory Sedukh, phone: +7 (812) 2334808
info@joodsemuziekprojecten.n OR / jmp@tiscalimail.nl.
See also: www.joodsemuziekprojecten.nl.

Save the Date--Trios from Terezin

Trios from Terezin
Performed by The Bridge Players
Thursday, January 11, 2007, 7:30 pm. Free and open to the public.

BJE Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
415-567-3327 ext. 703
www.bjesf.org

Terezin, the "model concentration camp" established by the Nazis outside Prague, became for a short time the meeting place for many of Europe's finest musicians. Violinist Randall Weiss will be joined by cellist Victoria Ehrlich and violist Natalia Vershilova in performing string trios and duos by Gideon Klein, Hans Krasa, and Zikmund Schul.

Herzliya Chamber Orchestra

Harvey Bordowitz, Music Director and Conductor, announces a new website for the Herzliya Chamber Orchestra. The Orchestra is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The website address is: http://www.hcomusic.com By logging on to the new website you will learn about the Herzilya Chamber Orchestra's present and future programs.
Herzilya is a community located on the coast of Israel. Guest artists include many of Israel’s finest soloists and conductors. The Orchestra also plays many world premières of commissioned works by Israeli composers, as well as classical music from the baroque to the present.

Shostakovich at 100 Held in LA

Shostakovich at 100 - A Community Concert
Wednesday, June 7, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.
Valley Beth Shalom, 15739 Ventura Boulevard, Encino 91436

Celebrating the centennial of Russia's leading 20th century composer, The Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles (JMCLA) presents a free community concert. Featuring special guest Joseph Dorfman, concert pianist, composer, and Shostakovich scholar at Buchman-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv University), the concert will showcase performances by Barry Gold (cello), Mark Kashper (violin), David Kasap (accordion), Hila Plitmann (soprano), Alma Mora (mezzo-soprano), Mark Saltzman (tenor) and Neal Brostoff (piano). Dorfman will perform his "Trio, in Memoriam Dimitri Shostakovich" (1976). Shostakovich's "From Jewish Folk Poetry," op. 79 (1948), written at the height of Soviet cultural repression and featuring Russian translations of Yiddish folk poetry, will also be performed. For more information, please call (818) 907-7194 or visit www.jmcla.org.

Modern American Jewish Composers at Kane Street

The Forward had an interesting article about a recent event held at the Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn this past week. Jewish contemporary classical composers had some of their works performed, with composers Samuel Adler and Ursula Mamlok speaking at the event.
http://www.forward.com/articles/7830

Ensemble Meitar Summer Concerts

Amit Dolberg, pianist and the founder of the international ensemble for Israeli Contemporary Music and Jewish Clasical Music, Ensemble Meitar, announces some of their upcoming concerts.
22.6.2006 - 'White Night' Festival, Einav Center, Tel Aviv
1.7.2006 - Michelstadt, Germany
8.7.2006 - 'New Sounds', Israeli Composers League, Einav Center, Tel Aviv
For details, locations and times, see their websitehttp://www.meitar.net/eng_index.php

A Tapestry of Jewish Music by Gerald Cohen

Sunday, May 7, 4:00 pm: Lawrenceville, NJ
Performance of V'higad'ta L'vincha (Passover Cantata)
A Tapestry of Jewish Music: Princeton Pro Musica, Frances Fowler Slade, Music Director; and Sharim V'Sharot, Elayne Robinson Grossman, Music Director.
Adath Israel Congregation, 1958 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville NJ.
Pre-concert forum with conductors and composer 3 p.m., made possible with a grant from Meet The Composer's Creative Connections Fund.
http://www.princetonpromusica.org/season.html
http://www.meetthecomposer.org/programs/eventcalendar.htm
For more events

More music of Gerald Cohen:
Wednesday, May 24, 7:30 pm: New York City
Premiere of Lo, body and soul-this land (to poetry of Walt Whitman)
The New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th St. NY, NY
Part of the Ninth Annual Children's Aid Society Chorus Spring Concert. Over 300 children from 15 different CAS choruses will perform; on the program will be music spanning from classical to folk and pop classics, as well as the World Premieres of new choral works from the 2005-2006 CAS Chorus Composition Grant recipients, Gerald Cohen and Mary Feinsinger.
www.childrensaidsociety.org/chorus/chor_events/209069/3482471
http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/chorus/comp_grant/recip_bios

Tuesday, June 6, 8:00 pm: Pittsburgh, PA
Performance of excerpts of V'higad'ta L'vincha and several other of Gerald Cohen compositions, at the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival "Songs for the Seasons" concert; Levy Hall, Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.pjmf.net/concerts.php

Thursday, June 8, 8:00 pm: Bethesda, MD
Premiere of Meditation and Celebration (settings of Psalms 33 and 100) commissioned by Zemer Chai, the Washington, DC Jewish Community Chorus, Eleanor Epstein, conductor, in honor of their 30th anniversary. Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, 7727 Persimmon Tree Lane, Bethesda, MD
http://www.zemerchai.org/dspSchedule.cfm

Sunday, June 11, 3:00 pm: New York City
Performance of Excerpts of Sarah and Hagar
Scenes from the opera: music by Gerald Cohen, libretto by Charles Kondek
at a concert of the American Society for Jewish Music
Cast: Ilana Davidson (Hagar); Elizabeth Shammash (Sarah) Robert Gardner (Avraham)
Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, Manhattan; Admission: $8 for information, call the American Society for Jewish Music: 212-294-8328
http://www.jewishmusic-asjm.org

Lazar Weiner's Yiddish Art Songs Come to Life on New CD Release

The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music has released another CD. This one is "The Art of Yiddish Song" with 32 songs by Lazare Weiner. [8.559443]. You can read a complete discription released by the Milken Archive about the recording. http://www.milkenarchive.org/articles/articles.taf?function=detail&id=112
Often referred to as "America's Jewish Schubert", Weiner's exquisite songs are a pinnacle of Yiddish art song (lider). This recording shows his mastery of craftsmanship, connection to the language, and complete immersion in the depths of meaning in Jewish culture. The performers are top drawer, and so the recording is a "must" for anyone interested in Yiddish art music, or generally in good lieder.

Max Stern's Messer Marco Polo at New York City Opera VOX Showcase

VOX: Showcasing American Composers 2006
Produced by New York City Opera
Presented by the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University
566 LaGuardia Place (Washington Square Park South)
May 6 – 7, 2006
FREE
Sunday, MAY 7, 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Stephen Andrew Taylor, Paradises Lost, libretto by Kate Gale
Max Stern, Messer Marco Polo

Directions to Skirball Center:
The Skirball Center is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square Park South, within a few blocks of most subway lines, including West 4th St. (A, C, E, F, V, and S), 8th Street (N, R, W), Astor Place (6) and Christopher Street (1).

Many opera composers only get to hear their works through their computer speakers. But since 1999, New York City Opera has offered American composers the opportunity to hear their compositions with a full orchestra and superb young singers. VOX is the only program of its kind in the country, and it has offered audiences the first chance to hear works by composers such as Mark Adamo, Charles Wuorinen, Richard Danielpour, and Michael John LaChiusa that have gone on to define an American musical voice.

This May, City Opera brings the VOX Showcase downtown to New York University's Skirball Center, an intimate new theater devoted to developing young audiences for live performances. The City Opera Orchestra will play excerpts from twelve innovative new works by both established and emerging composers.

Discussions with the composers and other exciting events will make up a festival that is free and open to the public.

The full schedule:
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

MAY 6

12:00 – 1:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Transforming Literature into Opera
Moderator: Mark Adamo
Participants: Russell Banks, Frank Corsaro, Kate Gale, Herschel Garfein, Christopher Hawes, Philip Littell

2 – 3 pm
Herschel Garfein, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Robert Carl, Harmony, libretto by Russell Banks

3:15 – 4:15
Martin Hennessy, Letter to E. 11th St., libretto by Mark Campbell
H. Leslie Adams, Blake, libretto by Daniel Mayers

4:30 – 5:30
William Kraft, Red Azalea, libretto by Christopher Hawes
Thomas Pasatieri, Frau Margot, libretto by Frank Corsaro

8:00 – 10:00 pm
VOX On The Edge
Readings of new works by Center for Contemporary Opera, Music Theater Group, Encompass New Opera Theatre, and American Opera Projects

MAY 7

12:00 – 1:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Opera Electronica
Moderator: Tod Machover
Participants: Mason Bates, Justine F. Chen, Anne LeBaron, Stephen Andrew Taylor

2 – 3 pm
Jenny O. Johnson, Leaving Santa Monica
Mason Bates, California Fictions

3:15 – 4:15
Justine F. Chen, The Maiden Tower
Anne LeBaron, Crescent City, libretto by Philip Littell

4:30 – 5:30 pm
Stephen Andrew Taylor, Paradises Lost, libretto by Kate Gale
Max Stern, Messer Marco Polo

Regina Resnik Presents: Covert or Convert?

Sunday, April 2, 2:30 PM

Regina Resnik Presents: Covert or Convert?
A Powerful Expression of the Jewish Spirit

Regina Resnik, narrator; Darynn Zimmer, soprano; Michael Philip Davis, tenor; Charles Robert Stephens, baritone; Vlad Iftinca, piano

This unique program features the work of Felix Mendelssohn and Anton Rubinstein, converts to Christianity, and Otto Klemperer, a convert back to Judaism, along with unheralded Jewish composers who wrote covertly during the Inquisition, under Communism, and in the Holocaust. Works by Aldo Finzi, Pavel Haas, Mieczyslaw Weinberg and others will have their premieres in the Museum's Edmond J. Safra Hall. All of them are powerful expressions of the Jewish spirit. Presented and narrated by opera legend Regina Resnik.
$20 adults, $15 seniors, $10 members/students
Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
36 Battery Place, New York, NY 10280
t. 646.437.4337 f. 646.437.4341
Visit our website at: www.mjhnyc.org

Regina Resnik has had an opera career spanning more than 60 years and more than 80 roles in the great international opera houses. She became famous for roles such as Carmen and Mistress Quickly. In 1987, Regina Resnik made her musical theater debut as Fraülein Schneider in Cabaret with Joel Grey, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. Since 1997, she has been the host and narrator of the concert series "Regina Resnik Presents" - which she co-founded and co-produces with her son, tenor and stage director, Michael Philip Davis. The series has become an important presence in New York musical life, having offered such diverse programs as "Beethoven in Song," "The Gypsy in Classical Song," and "The Classic Kurt Weill"

Shapira and Shapira Perform Brahms at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall

Renowned cellist Benjamin Shapira will joined by pianist Shulamith Shapira performing the two Brahms cello sonatas at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall on March 16th, 8:00 pm. B. Shapira's talent was recognized at a very early age. He was quickly embraced by America Israel Cultural Foundation, and was selected by Isaac Stern to join a small group of outstanding young protégé artists at the Jerusalem Music Center. Shapira's international career was launched after his celebrated Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall performance of the Complete Bach Suites for Cello Solo. Since, Shapira is in constant demand as a soloist, performing all over the United States and abroad. His recent years' US performances include concerts in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Texas, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin. Shapira frequently performs internationally as well, touring Europe, South America and Israel.

Tickets can be purchase at CarnegieCharge at: 212-247-7800 or by calling Taltal productions at: 1-888-432-3556. Tickets are $25 and $12 for students and senior citizens. The Brahms Cello Sonatas Celebrated in Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall

The concert provides a rare opportunity for NY music lovers to explore both cello sonatas side by side. Considered by most as corner stones of the cello repertoire, the two Brahms cello sonatas reflect, each in its own way, that distinct style, which made Brahms' music so eternally powerful in the eyes of music lovers: always romantic, potent and rich, yet classicist and intellectually intricate in form and detail. "The E Minor sonata is one of my favorite works in the entire cello repertoire" says Shapira. "It is a tragic work, which makes an extraordinary use of the entire wide emotional range the cello can offer, making special use of the deep, bass qualities of the instrument. It is a magnificent, monumental work" he exclaims. The F major sonata opus 99 belongs to a much later period of Brahms's life. "The F Major sonata provides such a contrast to the dark E Minor" says Shapira "it is a passionate work, almost violent at times, but always seems to maintain a very optimistic approach, full of youthful energy" he concludes.

Highly praised by critics, Shapira was compared with the great Catalonian cellist Pablo Casals. "Shapira's admirable accounts [of the Bach Suites] might be aptly described as 'Modified Casals'," says critic Harris Goldsmith in a review published by the New York Concert Review "Shapira is, like his great Catalonian forebear, a romantic with brains". The Agence France Presse dubs Shapira as "A Soloist of International Stature"; the New Jersey Herald calls him as "a passionate performer".

Meira Warshauer Works To Be Performed by Slovak Radio Orchestra

Three major works by American Jewish composer Meira Warshauer, Ahavah (Love), Shacharit (Morning Service) and Like Streams in the Desert, will be performed in “Music of the Jewish Heart,” a concert by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Choir, soprano Jennifer Hines, mezzo soprano Stephanie Gregory and tenor Michael Hendrick, all under the direction of Maestro Kirk Trevor on Thursday, February 2 – 7:00 PM at The Concert Hall of Slovak Radio in Bratislava, Slovakia. For more about these works, visit http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/#Compositions.

You can follow Ms. Warshauer’s trip to Bratislava online through her new blog at http://www.sequenza21.com/warshauer.html.
Ahavah and Shacharit both address a universal respect for life as human and spiritual values. “After the Holocaust, there is a great need for healing, reconciliation, and mutual understanding,” writes Ms. Warshauer. Ahavah communicates the message of love and justice essential for preserving life in the earth. Shacharit journeys through the prayers and chants of the synagogue morning service and ends with a prayer for universal peace. Like Streams in the Desert, was commissioned in honor of the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel, was inspired by Psalm 126, whose theme is the return of exiles to Zion.

For more about these works, visit http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/#Compositions. They are being performed in preparation for a CD recording by the same performers in the days immediately following the concert.
For more about Maestro Kirk Trevor, visit
http://www.musicinternational.us/conductor.htm.
For more about Jennifer Hines, please visit
http://www.jenniferhines.voxpage1.com/
and for more about Michael Hendrick, log on to
http://www.michaelhendrick.com/.
Stephanie Gregory has been soloist in a wide variety of works by Stravinsky, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Puccini, Verdi and many others She has been featured in concerts with symphonies including the Bridgeport Symphony and has presented recitals throughout the eastern and southern U.S. Ms. Gregory was the 2001 winner of the Jenny Lind competition, and was awarded an extensive recital tour of Sweden. More about the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra at
http://www.slovakradio.sk/sosr/index.php?page=orchestra_e&menu=menu_e&head=head_sosr_e&title=orchestra and more about the Slovak Philharmonic Choir at
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Slovak-Philharmonic-Chorus.htm.

Meira Warshauer’s compositions have been performed and recorded to critical acclaim throughout the United States and in Israel, Europe, and Asia. A graduate of Harvard, New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of South Carolina, Dr. Warshauer studied composition with Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, William Thomas McKinley, and Gordon Goodwin. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP as well as the America Music Center, Meet the Composer, and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which named her Artist Fellow in music composition in 1994 and 2006. In 2000, she received the first Art and Cultural Achievement Award from the Jewish Historical Society of S. Carolina.
,br /> Ms. Warshauer is an Associate Music Faculty member at Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina . Her CDs include the soundtrack to the documentary “Land of Promise: The Jews of South Carolina” and "Spirals of Light", chamber music and poetry (by Ani Tuzman) on themes of enlightenment, on the Kol Meira label and "Revelation" for orchestra, included on the MMC CD “Robert Black Conducts”. Her music is published by Oxford University Press, MMB Music, World Music Press, and Kol Meira Publications. You can find much more about her at - http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/
,br /> For more information about Meira Warshauer, please contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.

A Sunday with Mieczyslaw Weinberg: program in Paris

Sunday, January 22nd 2006, 3pm
"A Sunday with Mieczyslaw Weinberg"
Concert programme: Sonate No 4 op.56, Sonatine op.46 for violin and piano, Chants juifs op.13, String Quartett No 8, Notturno
Round table: Weinberg, a musician to discover
With Olia Weinberg, Frans Lemaire (musicologist), Reinhard Flender (editor)
Further Information:
L'Assocation internationale Dimitri Chostakovitch www.devinci.fr/chostakovitch
Le Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme Paris www.mahj.org

Varshavsky-Shapiro Piano Duo win Second Place in Miami

Israelis Stanislava Varshavsky and Diana Shapiro won Second place in Dec, 2005, at the 10th Dranoff International Two Piano Competition, held in Miami, Florida. Competing against the top piano duos in the world, the Israelis finished second with the pianists from Japan, Kuni Seo and Shin-ichiro Kato finishing first place Gold Medal. The Murray Dranoff Foundation was created in 1987 by Loretta Dranoff as a tribute to her late husband with whom she performed as an internationally recognized two piano team. The second prize, the Silver Medal comes with a $15,000 award. Another Israeli, Michael Tsalka from Tel Aviv finished 9th place with partner Katarzyna Marzec-Salwinski from Krakow, Poland.

Varshavski and Shapiro started playing together as a duo in 1998. In 2004 they won The Grand Prize at the 15th Piano Competition in Rome for duo piano and 1st prize for piano four hands. In 2004 they also won the first prize at the “Kol HaMusica” Young Artists Competition in Jerusalem. Between 1999 and 2003 they have won prizes in the Czech Republic, Miami, Jerusalem, Munich and Poland. The duo currently live in Cambridge, MA and study at the Longy School of Music in the class of American pianist Victor Rosenbaum. They maintain a website at http://www.piano-4-hands.com/

Central in Song at Wix Hall, Central Synagogue in London

Wednesday 21 December
Central in Song at Wix Hall, Central Synagogue
Address: 36 Hallam Street, London, W1N 6NN,
7.30pm
Phone:020 7580 1355.

Music at Central presents music written for the synagogue performed by its cantor Steven Leas and the choirs of Central Synagogue and the Choir of London at Central Synagogue on Wednesday 21 December, at 7.30pm.

This exciting collaboration sees Steven Leas and the Choir of Central Synagogue, who performed before the Queen last year at Westminster Palace, joined by the men of the highly acclaimed Choir of London, an ensemble of some of the UK's finest choral singers who are particularly noted for their innovative cross-cultural projects, and who performed in Jerusalem and Ramallah last year.

The programme, accompanied and introduced by Stephen Glass, includes settings of prayers and psalms, from Renaissance polyphony to modern arrangements. Of particular interest are joint performances of Hebrew and Yiddish works by Meir Finkelstein and Stephen Glass, two of the most dynamic figures in the contemporary world of Jewish cantorial and choral music, born in Britain but living and working in North America.

Melodia Women s Choir Salutes Fanny Mendelssohn's 200th Birthday

Melodia Women's Choir at NOV 19 CONCERT IN NYC
Melodia Women's Choir of New York City presents a mystical November concert of darkly transcendent music drawn from the classical and contemporary lexicon. Featured in the program is a special 200th anniversary tribute to Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, sister of Felix Mendelssohn and an extraordinarily talented, if often overlooked, composer.

Conducted by Cynthia Powell, the accomplished 32-member Melodia women's ensemble will present "Twilight in the Garden of Dreams" on Saturday, November 19, 2005 at 8:00 p.m. at St. Peter's Church, Chelsea, 346 West 20th Street in New York City.

Melodia has invited The Momenta String Quartet to perform Mendelssohn-Hensel s "String Quartet in Eb" as an instrumental interlude at the concert.

Tickets to "Twilight" are $15 advance and $20 at the door. Tickets may be ordered on the website, www.melodiawomenschoir.org. (The Jewish Music WebCenter is particularly partial to the music of Fanny Mendelssohn.--JP)

Melodia will perform two partsongs by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, described by Powell as "spirited, passionate and full of life." Fanny Mendelssohn was born in November, 1805, in Hamburg, Germany, the granddaughter of the prominent Jewish scholar Moses Mendelssohn. From an early age, she displayed musical brilliance matching that of her brother Felix, who rose to prominence. Constricted by social mores and limitations of women, performances of Fanny's compositions were heard only in Mendelssohn salons and went largely unacknowledged. Yet, family archives reveal that by her death at age 41, Fanny had composed 250 songs, 125 piano works, four cantatas, and much instrumental chamber music.

Other selections in the program include Meredith Monk's "Quarry Weave" and Elena Kats-Chernin's "Memorial Rag." "This is music you won t hear on the beaten path," said Powell, who is also the Organist/Choirmaster of Temple Sinai in Tenafly, N.J.

The emergence of Melodia Women's Choir, founded in 2003 by Jennifer Clarke, reflects a rekindling of interest in the exploration, creation, and performance of women's choral music. Melodia frequently presents the work of women composers. More information about the life of Fanny Mendelssohn and the concert is on the website, www.melodiawomenschoir.org.

'ORIENTALE' in Amsterdam

'ORIENTALE' is a unique recital that includes the Jewish violin music of Achron, Bloch, Bruch, Engel, Dobrowen, Feldman, Gnesin, A. Krein, Samson, Scher, Zeitlin, and Zimbalist. Performed by violinist Grigory Sedukh (from St.-Petersburg) and pianist Sara Crombach (from Amsterdam) on Saturday 10 December 2005, 8:15 PM at the de Liberal Synagogue Amsterdam, Jacob Soetendorpstraat 8 te Amsterdam. Entrance fee 10 Euro.

With their recital entitled Orientale, violinist Grigory Sedukh and pianist Sara Cormbach are paying homage to a group of Russian-Jewish composers whose music was banned in the Soviet Union. Some of them belonged to the Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music, which was founded in 1908. The Society was a meeting place for Jewish composers interested in creating a new kind of classical Jewish music. They collected folk music, gave concerts and published informative material on Jewish folk music. The forerunners included music critic, composer and publisher Joel Engel (1862-1927) and composers Ephraim Skliar (1871-?) and Solomon Rosovsky (1878-1962). The leading composers included Joseph Achron (1886-1943), Mikhail Gnesin (1883-1957) and Alexander Krein (1883-1951). The Petersburg Society created a considerable oeuvre consisting of original works as well as new arrangements of the traditional repertoire. The Society was officially was active for 10 years and had to stop in 1918 after the Communist take-over. Jewish culture was taboo in the Soviet Union after 1930 and the music of the Society was no longer performed. The memory of it was virtually erased, but today some dedicated musicians are trying to revive it. Grigory Sedukh is one of them. The programme also features well-known Jewish works by Bruch and Bloch.

As an added attraction, a piece by Ren� Samson, a Jewish composer from Surinam, is included, Eine kleine Gamelan-Musik. Although originally written for flute and piano, it will be performed in a special version for piccolo violin and piano. Samson, born in 1948 in Paramaribo, is a chemist who started composing at the age of 40. Since 1998 a small enthusiast group of musicians has regularly performed Samson's music.

Grigory Sedukh, born in 1952 in Kharkov in the Ukraine, is the only piccolo violinist in the world. He was introduced ten years ago to this instrument constructed by the renowned American violin-maker Carleen Hutchins. It is tuned an octave higher than the regular violin and Sedukh is particularly fond of playing Jewish music on the piccolo violin. He also made many transcriptions for it of classical masterpieces. Grigory Sedukh is a member of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and teaches at the chamber music department of the Petersburg State Conservatory. He gives solo recitals all over the world.

In September 2000 he was in the opera Alice in Wonderland, performed by the Nederlandse Opera at the Music Theatre in Amsterdam. Composer Alexander Kneiffel wrote a special role for Grigory's piccolo violin. During the production he met the pianist Sara Crombach. In 2002/2003 Grigory participated in the Mikhail Gnesin Project, organised by the Jewish Music Projects Foundation and performed in Amsterdam, Geneva, London, St. Petersburg, Moscow and other cities. Sara Crombach studied with Naum Grubert at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. She followed master classes in Hungary with the Kod�ly Quartet and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Boris Berman and Sergei Dorenski. She also studied with Maria Jo�o Pires. She performs often as a soloist and in duos with pianist Bernd Brackman and cellist Wladislaw Warenberg, with whom she recorded a CD of Russian romantic masterpieces. She also recorded with the Armenian Chamber Orchestra Yerevan.

More information:

. Liberal Jewish Community Amsterdam, phone: 020-5400123; e-mail: ljgadam@ljg.nl Jacob Soetendorpstraat 8, 1079 RM Amsterdam . Jewish Music Projects Foundation, phone: 020-662 3675; e-mail: jmp@tiscalimail.nl P.O. Box 55524, 1007 NA Amsterdam . See http://www.lgj.nl; http://www.joodsemuziekprojecten.nl

Bruce Chalmer releases Berakhot: A Midrash Cantata

There is a new CD release of Berakhot: A Midrash Cantata by Bruce Chalmer, performed by the Fyre and Lightning Consort with guest tenor soloist Roger Grow. The CD, on the Rootstock Recordings label of Multicultural Media, is available at www.worldmusicstore.com.
"Berakhot: A Midrash Cantata is a work of Jewish music consisting of 26 musical pieces, each a midrashic interpretation of a particular prayer or text on the theme of berakha (blessing). The forms of the pieces include original poetry set to music, musical settings of liturgical texts in Hebrew, English, or both, and musical compositions without words. The music is scored for voices (SATB) and a variety of early and modern instruments (varying among the pieces), and includes medieval- and renaissance-like polyphony, klezmer, blues, doo-wop, barbershop quartet, a touch of reggae, and many other styles. A major part of the work is the program notes and commentary booklet, which includes a page for each piece laid out in Talmudic fashion, with the text of the piece in the middle, and the composer's commentary around it. This commentary is, in turn, surrounded by visual midrash in the form of art by internationally known artist (and Beth Jacob member) Diane Sophrin."

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.

Fanny Mendelssohn's music featured at New Center for Arts and Culture

The New Center for Arts and Culture in Boston is bringing to the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College the exhibit "The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their Salons". As part of the season of interest in this subject a series of events in Music, Lectures, The creative Process and Films, and Jewish Identity will take place throughout the Fall in Boston. On Sunday September 25, 2005 at 3pm at the Boston College, Gasson 100 building will be a FREE concert of the music of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. The concert features's Felix Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream for two pianos, and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Piano Trio in d minor, which is her masterpiece. For more information, call the music department at Boston College, 617-552-6004.

"Dus gezang fin geto Lodzh/Song of the Lodz Ghetto"

The new Brave Old World CD has been released: "Dus gezang fin geto Lodzh/Song of the Lodz Ghetto," on the Winter & Winter label. The CD is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and should be in the stores across North America. The program has been evolving since 1990, and it reflects BOW's own experiences over 15 years of performing Jewish music. This album represents a step over into new form of Jewish music--a 'yiddish song suite' and is not only of high musical performance quality, but may set precedents for future art forms in Jewish music. I'm calling this new Jewish art form, a 'bernian suite' in honor of Alan Bern. For more information read on: Alan Bern writes: "The core material consists of songs collected from Lodz survivors by Dr. Gila Flam back in 1985 and presented in her book "Singing for Survival" (U. of Illinois Press). These songs are already amazing in themselves, incredible evidence of people's ability to resist spiritually when every other form of resistance was impossible. Especially the songs of Yankele Herszkowicz are filled with learned and biting double-entendre, black humor, and stubborn resistance. But our CD is not a "historical" CD, instead we weave our own music in and out of the Lodz repertoire to create a kind of collage/montage like an audio film. The music as a whole makes a kind of suite which moves back and forth between pre-War Poland, the present, the Lodz Ghetto, and so on, like a dream-filled night when you're obsessed with something and keep coming back to it over and over again. It's why the CD is called "Song" and not "Songs" of the Lodz ghetto - ultimately it is Brave Old World's song of and to the Lodz ghetto. The recording itself is typical of Winter & Winter's famous high sound quality and the cover design is beautiful and chilling. I believe that this CD captures Michael Alpert's singing better than any other I know of, and the rest of us play pretty well on it, too, if I may say so myself (even though I had just come down with whooping cough the day of the recording!) All in all, this is our most ambitious CD yet, and, as I already said, I'm extremely proud of it. I hope that many of you will check it out and help spread the word. We've updated the BOW website and you can download 30-45 seconds of all the titles, although that will give you only a glimpse of what happens on the CD. Thanks to all of you for reading my long message about this! Best wishes to all, Alan Bern

TORONTO JEWISH FOLK CHOIR GIVES 79TH SPRING CONCERT

SUNDAY, JUNE 5, with the TORONTO MANDOLIN ORCHESTRA
The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir marks the 60 anni