June 13, 2010
USDAN CENTER STUDENTS TO PRESENT UNIQUE GALA PERFORMANCE OF ERNEST BLOCH'S SACRED SERVICE ON AUGUST 4TH.
CONCERT WILL HONOR BLOCH 50 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH.CONDUCTOR AND SOLOIST ARE LEADING YOUNG ARTISTS.
On Wednesday evening, August 4th, Usdan Center students will present a historic performance of one of Ernest Bloch's greatest works, his Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh) for orchestra, chorus, and baritone soloist. Sacred Service has rarely been presented by young people, and its performance on August 4th will be an artistic point of pride for Usdan, and for its partner organization, UJA-Federation of New York.
Usdan's senior orchestra and chorus will close the Center's August 4th Gala Concert with two parts of Sacred Service. The ensembles, composed of high school-aged music students, will be conducted by Adam Glaser, a Usdan Center alumnus, and the conductor of Juilliard's top Pre-College orchestra. The critically acclaimed young baritone, Jesse Blumberg, will perform the cantor's role in Usdan's performance. Usdan's chorus will be prepared by Karen Lehman, conductor of the Center's senior choral ensembles
Musicians throughout the United States are honoring Bloch in 2010, the 50th anniversary of his death. Sacred Service was commissioned by San Francisco's Congregation Emanu-El, and it was premiered there in 1934. Usdan's Gala will conclude with the dramatic scene that Bloch most loved. It is the moment when the Torah is taken from its ark, and presented to the congregation as the chorus sings "Torah tzivoh." Bloch considered this part of his piece to be the embodiment of his personal journey of reunion with Judaism.
Usdan's Executive Director, Dale Lewis, recently spoke of the significance of the Center's August performance: "Sacred Service was a watershed composition for Bloch, one that ignited his transition from a classical style of composition, to one that was deeply religious. As we look back on 50 years of musical history since Bloch's death, we now see his pieces as among the most significant examples of Jewish art produced in the United States. The Center's conductors look forward to introducing Bloch's music to our students, and to presenting a major work of historic and religious significance to our community." A former concert cellist, Lewis has performed the composer's entire repertory for the cello, including Schelomo, the Hebrew rhapsody for cello and orchestra that is among the most important concertos for the instrument. Lewis's performances of Bloch's Jewish Life suite were accompanied by the celebrated American composer, Yehudi Wyner, and his Carnegie Recital Hall debut, as winner of the New York Violin Teachers Guild competition, included a performance of Bloch's Supplication for cello.
For more information, visit www.usdan.com , write to info@usdan.com , or call (212) 772-6060 or (631) 643-7900. Usdan Center is an agency of the UJA-Federation of New York.The Center is on a 200-acre woodland setting at 185 Colonial Springs Road in Huntington. The acclaimed young American conductor Adam Glaser is now in his ninth season on the faculty of the Juilliard School, where he conducts Juilliard's Pre-College Orchestra in regular concerts at New York's Lincoln Center. Mr. Glaser was awarded the American-Austrian Foundation's prestigious Karajan Fellowship for Young Conductors, which sponsored his residence at the Salzburg Festival and the Internationales Orchesterinstitut Attergau in St. Georgen, Austria.
An active composer, Mr. Glaser has enjoyed performances of his works by 19 major orchestras throughout the U.S. and Canada including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony Orchestra, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, along with the orchestras of Victoria, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Illinois, Long Island, Richmond, South Bend, and Naples, and various college orchestras including the University of Michigan, Stanford University and Cornell University. His choral conducting engagements include appearances at the Oregon Bach Festival, and performances of his choral compositions and arrangements include those by choirs of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and Kol HaKavod, a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of Jewish music. He has appeared as a guest conductor of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony (B.C.), and the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Glaser earned a diploma in orchestral conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division in composition, and a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in English, Afro-American Studies and Music. Additional studies include piano performance at the Oberlin Conservatory, and composition at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division.
Usdan's baritone soloist for Sacred Service will be Jesse Blumberg, an artist equally at home on opera, concert, and recital stages. He has appeared at The Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Ravinia Festival, and is the founder and artistic director of the Five Boroughs Music Festival. He has created roles in new operas produced by the Minnesota Opera and the Utah Symphony, and he performed the title role of Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland, after which the Baltimore Sun raved, "Jesse Blumberg commanded the stage, physically and vocally. His virile baritone grabbed the melodic lines with remarkable dynamic force, lighting up the hall with his every appearance." In 2008 Jesse sang John Brooke in Little Women with Opera Delaware and reprised his role in The Grapes of Wrath with Pittsburgh Opera. In 2009 he performed Silvio in Pagliacci with Annapolis Opera and then debuted with the Boston Early Music Festival, as Mercurio in L'incoronazione di Poppea and Adonis in Venus and Adonis.
In concert, Jesse Blumberg has performed with American Bach Soloists, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, Berkshire Choral Festival, Handel Choir of Baltimore, and the Waverly Consort. In 2005 he joined the Mark Morris Dance Group for a tour of the United Kingdom, and in 2007 he sang performances of Carmina Burana with the Pennsylvania Ballet at New York's City Center. As a chamber musician, Jesse has collaborated with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and the Ensemble for the Romantic Century. He has premieres two important chamber works for baritone: Lisa Bielawa's The Lay of the Love and Death at Alice Tully Hall in 2006, and Ricky Ian Gordon's Green Sneakers (with the Miami String Quartet) at the Vail Valley Festival in 2008. In 2006 he and pianist Thomas Bagwell gave a recital of Wolf Lieder, which the Washington Post described as "no less than revelatory." Also that year he and pianist Martin Katz presented an On Wings of Song recital for the Marilyn Horne Foundation, which has since been heard on various radio broadcasts nationwide.
In 2007 Jesse Blumberg was awarded first prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Auditions, and in 2006 took second prize in the Lieder Division of the Liederkranz Foundation Awards. He has been recognized by Opera Index, Inc. and the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists. In 2004 he was named a first place winner in the Art Song category of the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation Vocal Competition. In 2003 Blumberg was awarded third place at the 10th International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria, and in 2002 he won first place in the 2nd International Yrjš Kilpinen Art Song Competition. He received a Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music and undergraduate degrees in History and Music from the University of Michigan.
Usdan Center, now entering its 43rd season, has introduced the arts to more than 50,000 Tri-State Area children since its founding in 1968. The Center, on a 200-acre woodland setting at 185 Colonial Springs Road in Huntington, is open to all young people from age 6 to 18. No audition is needed for most programs - rather, admission is based on an expression of interest in the arts. Each summer, 1,500 students are transported to the Center in air-conditioned buses every day. One-third of Usdan's students attend on scholarship. Although the mission of the Center is for every child to establish a relationship with the arts, the unique stimulation of the Center has caused many to go on to arts careers. Alumni include singers Jane Monheit and Mariah Carey, actresses Natalie Portman and Lisa Gay Hamilton, and members of major music, theater, and dance ensembles, such as the New York, Boston, and Los Angeles orchestras, to the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater.
The 2010 season of Usdan Center opens on June 28, and continues through August 13. For information on applying for participation in the Center's program in Organic Gardening and Simple Food, or for more information about other programs at Usdan Center, visit www.usdan.com
November 14, 2009
Krakauer Plays with Detroit Symphony
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin will give the premiere performance of the Clarinet Klezmer Concerto, by Wlad Marhulets. The featured clarinet soloist is David Krakauer, one of the foremost musicians of the vital new wave of klezmer. The concerts will take place at the Orchestra Hall in Detroit on December 10th - 13th, 2009. http://www.detroitsymphony.com/ShowDetail.aspx?id=2492
Max M. Fisher Music Center
3711 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48201
Box Office Phone: (313) 576-5111
Box Office Fax: (313) 576-5109
Marhulet "DYBBUK" String Quartet Premiere
The string quartet Dybbuk by Wlad Marhulet was written for the New York based "J.A.C.K." quartet. The piece is inspired by Jewish folklore, in which a Dybbuk is a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. The piece depicts two aspects of Dybbuk - its wild and aggressive nature, as well as its memories from the past life full of suffering and tears.The premiere is going to take place November 30th at 8:00pm.
in Paul Hall, Julliard School, NYC
60 Lincoln Center Plaza, Broadway (at 65th St)
Upper West Side
212-769-7406
Subway: 1 to 66th St–Lincoln Ctr
Wlad Marhulets is a Polish composer of Jewish descent. Born in Minsk on May 1986, he began to be seriously interested in music at the age of 16. Wlad attended Academy of Music in Gdansk where he studied composition with Krzysztof Olczak, and later transfered to the Juilliard School in New York where he began studying with one of contemporary music's most distinguished composers, --John Corigliano.
Since identity has always been at the center of Wlad's music, he explores his heritage most ardently through his compositions. Acquaintance with Leopold Kozlowsky, known as the last klezmer of Galicia, as well as fascination of David Krakauer's recordings took on great importance for Wlad's development as a composer. Hence, the most important influences that his music is based upon include an amalgamation of klezmer and Jewish tradition.
Primarily interested in a synthesis of musical styles, Wlad is always at work on a variety of genre bending projects. His continuous crossing of borders between genres and styles has resulted in a large number of works. In spite of young age his compositional output numbers more that 50 items of orchestral, chamber, and solo pieces. The key works he composed include Concerto for piano and symphonic orchestra, Concerto Grosso for 3 violins and string orchestra, Symphonic Poem, Concerto for organ and symphonic orchestra, Sonata for violin and piano. Wlad is an exceptionally versatile person, having distinguished himself not only as a composer, but also as a painter, writer, graphic designer, and a clarinetist playing in ensembles spanning contemporary music to klezmer and experimental jazz.
November 13, 2009
Tekeeyah Concerto for Shofar/Trombone and Orchestra World Premiere
World Premiere Performances of Meira Warshauer’s Concerto for
Shofar/Trombone and Orchestra on November 15 in Brevard, NC and November
17 in Columbia, SC
Composer Meira Warshauer’s Tekeeyah (a call) - Concerto for Shofar/Trombone and Orchestra, will be given Premiere performances with the Brevard Philharmonic on November 15 –
3 PM at
Porter Center for the Performing Arts of Brevard College,
1 Brevard College Dr. in Brevard, North Carolina
and
with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra
on November 17 –
7:30 PM at
the Koger Center for the Arts
1051 Greene St. in
Columbia, South Carolina.
Shofar/trombone virtuoso Haim Avitsur will be soloist at both performances. The November 15 Brevard Philharmonic will be led by their Conductor and Artistic Director Donald Portnoy in a program that also includes works by Brahms and Borodin. More about the concert and the Philharmonic at http://www.boamusic.org/bp.htm.
The November 17 University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra will again be led by their Conductor and Artistic Director Donald Portnoy in a program that also includes works by Berlioz, Schubert and Tchaikovsky. More about this concert and the USC Symphony at http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/orchestra/index.html.
Tekeeyah (a call) is the first concerto written for shofar/trombone soloist and orchestra and was commissioned by a consortium of orchestras that includes the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Steven Errante, Conductor, Brevard Philharmonic, University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra, Donald Portnoy, Conductor and Artistic Director, Western Piedmont Symphony (Hickory, NC), John Gordon Ross, Music Director and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Neal Gittleman, Music Director along with Lilly Stern and Bruce Filler, and Linda and Bill Stern in loving memory of their parents, Jadzia and Ben Stern.
The composer, who began work on Tekeeyah (a call) during a residency at the MacDowell Colony in spring of 2008, has written this about the piece, “I believe this is a time which calls for awakening to our true essence as human beings. Our planet needs us, and we need each other, to care for and heal our suffering world. The shofar (ram’s horn), with its natural power and centuries of service in calling Jews to awaken, can be an important instrument in this collective renewal of purpose.” Read her complete program notes at http://www.meirawarshauer.com/NEW/pages/Program_notes/tekeeyah_notes.html. Read an online article about the new work at http://www.readthebeatmagazine.com/Oct09-Warshauer-Classical.htm.
Israeli trombonist Haim Avitsur has premiered over 60 new pieces encompassing a broad range of styles from solo trombone to chamber music and orchestra. Mr. Avitsur is Trombone Professor at West Chester University School of Music (PA) and at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, NY. From 2004-2007 Haim Avitsur was on the faculty of the University of Virginia as well as the Principal Trombonist of the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra. In 2005 he founded the Summer Trombone Workshop, which has a U.S. residency at Temple University. Much more about him at http://www.haimavitsur.com/.
Meira Warshauer’s music, performed internationally to critical acclaim, reflects her personal spiritual journey and communicates directly to the heart and soul of the listener. She has received many important awards and is the Nancy A. Smith Distinguished Visitor in Residence at Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC.
Ms. Warshauer has devoted much of her creative output to Jewish themes and their universal message. Bracha for violin and piano was recorded for the Feminissimo CD on Albany Records, which has also released her acclaimed Streams in the Desert disk of Torah-based choral/orchestral works. Her work also reflects a love and concern for the earth. A profile of her Symphony No.1: Living, Breathing Earth was featured on the nationally broadcast PRI radio show Living on Earth in Spring, 2007, during the symphony’s premiere season with commissioning orchestras Dayton Philharmonic, South Carolina Philharmonic, and Western Piedmont Symphony.
Warshauer's music is published by Oxford University Press, Hildegard, Lauren Keiser Music, World Music Press and Kol Meira Publications. Her website is at http://www.meirawarshauer.com and press photos are available at http://www.meirawarshauer.com/NEW/pages/presskit.html. Her Like Streams in the Desert video is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18OqrQV8z1U&feature=related.
Unsung Songs and Song Cycles
Works by Joel Mandelbaum will be performedat 2 PM on Sunday, November 15th
at the Assembly Hall of the Community Church of New York, which shares
its facilities with the Metropolitan Synagogue, 40 East 35th Street, NYC
The performance will be repeated the following day
Monday, November 16 at 12:15
at Lefrak Concert Hall at Queens College.
With a range of settings written from 1958 to 2009, the concert is truly a major retrospective and will feature, among others, Emily Duncan-Brown and Roz Woll
Over a more than 50-year period of devotion to the art song in fourteen cycles, Mandelbaum has set poems by Millay, Leonie Adams, Karen Ethelsdattar, Bettina Blake, and Benjamin J.R. Stolper, among others.
November 08, 2009
Yosif Feigelson Cello Concert of Mieczyslaw Weinberg in NYC
On Sunday, November 22nd at 3 p.m. celebrated Russian cellist Yosif Feigelsonwill perform at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue (30 West 68th Street, NYC).
The concert will feature four Cello Sonatas of composer Mieczyslaw (Moishe) Weinberg (1919-1996). Tickets and more information are available at the website: www.swfs.org or by phone at: (212) 877-4050.
Called "one of the most prolific, yet largely overlooked composers", Mieczyslaw (Moishe) Weinberg is author to 26 symphonies, 17 string quartets, operas, concerti as well as music to many movies including famous "The Cranes Are Flying". For more facts about composer visit www.mweinberg.info
Praised around the world for his outstanding mastery, dubbed by one of the critics " a Caruso of the Cello", Yosif Feigelson enjoys over three decades of a distinguished solo career. Former student of two great Russian masters: Rostropovich and Gutman, he is as much dedicated to bringing forward new music as his former mentors. His unique recordings of works for solo cello by M. Weinberg will be re-issued by Naxos in 2010. Visit artist's website at: www.yfeigelson.com
November 05, 2009
Esther by Hugo Weisgall at City Opera in NYC
City Opera’s season gets under way this weekend — with a reconstituted production of Hugo Weisgall’s “Esther,” given its premiere by the company in 1993. Esther runs at the Koch Theater Nov. 7-19. Ticket, priced $12-$145, may be purchased at New York City Opera. Read about it at: http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8206.htmlFeaturing Laura Flanigan
Video and Information at the NYC Opera:
http://www.nycopera.com/calendar/view.aspx?id=11488
"America's Greatest Opera Composer"...
"One of the greatest operas"...
"True Epic Music Theater!"
November 04, 2009
LEV ARONSON MEMORIAL CONCERT
SUNDAY 29 NOVEMBER | 3PMCONCERT/BOOK PARTY
sponsored by YIVO
at the Center for Jewish History
http://www.cjh.org/programs/calendar.php
The internationally renowned cellist Ralph Kirshbaum honors the memory of his late teacher Lev Aronson (1912-1988), a Holocaust survivor who played for many years with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, with a rare New York recital. Mr. Kirshbaum will perform compositions by Aronson as well as works by some of the artists who influenced him.
The program will also feature a reading by author Frances Brent from her critically acclaimed new book, The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson (Atlas & Co.).
Admission: $25 General / $18 YIVO members
Box Office: 212.868.4444 | www.smarttix.com
October 27, 2009
An Evening of Baroque Jewish music at the Kennedy Center
Charles and Robyn Krauthammer proudly present:An Evening of Baroque Jewish music at the Kennedy Center
Apollo Ensemble
An evening of Baroque Jewish music:
The Apollo Ensemble presented by Pro Musica Hebraica
Making its U.S. debut, Amsterdam's Apollo Ensemble performs a concert of Baroque Jewish musical treasures, one night only, at the Kennedy Center. A highlight is the American premiere of Dio, Clemenza e Rigore, an anonymously composed oratorio for an eighteenth-century Italian Jewish holiday synagogue service. Don't miss this rarely performed work. This concert is presented by Pro Musica Hebraica, devoted to presenting Jewish classical music, much of it believed lost, forgotten, or rarely performed, in a concert hall setting.
Apollo Ensemble
Thu., Nov. 5 at 7:30 | Kennedy Center Terrace Theater | Seats $38
Program:
CACERES - Le-el elim, Cantata for two voices and basso continuo (1738)
MARCELLO - Salmo 15/Ma'oz Tzur (1724-1727)
For alto, violincello, bassoon, harpsichord, and baritone
De ROSSI - Trio sonatas for two violins and basso continuo (ca. 1620)
UNKNOWN - Dio, Clemenza e Rigore, Hoshana Rabbah in Casale Monferrato (1733) (U.S. Premiere)
Tickets also available at the Box Office or charge by phone
(202) 467-4600 | Toll-free (800) 444-1324 | TTY (202) 416-8524 | Groups (202) 416-8400
October 19, 2009
Solo Piano Concert by Lilia Valitova
SOLO PIANO CONCERT BY LILIA VALITOVA, COMPOSER AND PIANIST Lilia Valitova, will perform the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Debussy; piano compositions based on Jewish folk and liturgical melodies; and newly composed original Baha i-inspired piano songs. The event will take place on Saturday, November 21, at 7 pm, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley (in Kensington) , One Lawson Road, Kensington CA 94707. Adult general admission, $18; children 13 and under, free. CDs will be available for purchase. For more information, please visit www.LiliaValitova.comSerban Nichifor Music Commemorates Holocaust
Serban Nichifor, a Romanian composer, has a website with his music that commemorates the Holocaust. This can be found at http://www.shoahmusic.lx.ro . There are videos attached to listening to the music.World Premiere Performances of Meira Warshauer Music
World Premiere Performances of Meira Warshauer’s Concerto for Shofar/Trombone and Orchestra in Wilmington and Brevard, NC, and Columbia, SCTekeeyah (a call) - Concerto for Shofar/Trombone and Orchestra, will be given its World Premiere performances with shofar/trombone virtuoso Haim Avitsur on the following dates.
http://www.wilmingtonsymphony.org/.
http://www.boamusic.org/bp.htm.
http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/orchestra/index.html.
Tekeeyah (a call) is the first concerto ever written for shofar/trombone
soloist and orchestra and was commissioned by a consortium of orchestras
that also includes the Western Piedmont Symphony (Hickory, NC), John
Gordon Ross, Music Director and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Neal
Gittleman, Music Director.
Tekeeyah (a call) during a residency at
the MacDowell Colony in Spring of 2008, has written this about the
piece, "I believe our time calls for an awakening to our true essence as
human beings. The shofar (ram’s horn), with its natural power and
centuries of service in calling Jews to awaken, can be an important
instrument in this collective renewal of purpose. The trombone's breadth
of range and dynamics complements and extends the expressive capacity of
the shofar.”
http://www.readthebeatmagazine.com/Oct09-Warshauer-Classical.htm.
Like Streams in the Desert video is on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18OqrQV8z1U&feature=related. The piece is
featured on her critically acclaimed Albany Records Streams in the
Desert disk of Torah-based choral/orchestral works.
http://www.meirawarshauer.com.
Posted by jmwc at 10:22 PM
October 04, 2009
Leo Zeitlin Chamber Music Comes to Life in New Critical Edition
The music world involved in the revival of Jewish national music or recovery of early twentieth century art music of the first order will be dazzled by the new critical edition of Leo Zeitlin's Chamber Music published by AR Editions, and edited by musicologist and professors Paula Eisenstein Baker and Robert S. Nelson. Texts are presented in original Yiddish, Hebrew, transliterations and English translation. But who was Leo Zeitlin? It's not a name in currency today, but is likely to be more familiar now that musicians will have a chance to perform this music, and it is highly recommended that college and university libraries purchase the volume. All but two of the selections are class art pieces based on Jewish themes.
Zeitlin, also known as Leyb or Lev Tseytlin or in Russian as Lev Mordukhovich Tseitlin, was born in Pinsk (now part of Belarus) in 1884. He went to Odessa to study music, studying violin and viola. In 1904, he auditioned for admittance to the St. Petersburg Conservatory and was accepted. He then went on to study composition with Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. While there, Zeitlin joined the Society for Jewish Folk Music, a group devoted to the creation of new art works based on "ethnic" Jewish music and also serving as a publishing house. Four of Zeitlin's work were to be published by the Society. He left St. Petersburg and traveled to the Ukraine where he was appointed to the Imperial Music School in Ekaterinoslav (today Dnipropetrovsk) and also conducted there. After a stay in Vilna, he left for the US and arrived in 1923. In the US he worked as arranger, composer and violinist. In 1929, one of his pieces, Palestina, "a dramatic overture on Jewish themes," was performed for a radio audience estimated at over six million.
Along with a biography is the fascinating story of finding the works of Leo Zeitlin a half century later by Paula Eisenstein Baker. She traced down the materials, correctly identifying him as the composer of Eli Zion. The introduction includes discussion of the style of the composer in all its facets, and critical evaluations of the works, writing: "By any standard, Zeitlin's work is not just technically proficient, but always musical and expressive, and --above all--consistently inventive and imaginative." Detailed performance, historic and evaluative notes on each piece add an extraordinarily helpful resource to any performer. Works include piano vocal score and voice with quartet or chamber groups. For more details about various forces for the 32 items in this volume, refer to: https://www.areditions.com/rr/rrn/n051.html at the AR Editions website.
About the editors:
Paula Eisenstein Baker is an adjunct instructor of cello and chamber music at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, and has published several articles about Zeitlin and the Society for Jewish Folk Music.
Robert Nelson is professor emeritus of music theory and composition at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston. He received his DMA in composition from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Ingolf Dahl. His compositions and arrangements have been performed world-wide, and he has co-authored five widely adopted theory textbooks.
For those who read Yiddish, there is an article about this volume in the Yiddish Forverts http://yiddish.forward.com/node/2342
May 21, 2009
Music in Our Time: 2009
Sunday, June 7th at the Center for Jewish HistoryCelebrating the Siegmeister Centenary
"Music in Our Time," the annual concert of Jewish music by contemporary composers, presented by the American Society for Jewish Music in association with the American Jewish Historical Society, will be given on Sunday, June 7th at 3 PM at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, NYC).
For tickets $18 ($12 members); $6 for Students and Seniors, call 212-868-4444 or
www.smarttix.com or
contact the Box Office: (917) 606-8200 /
Elie Siegmeister's String Quartet No.3 "On Hebrew Themes," will be the featured work on the program, highlighting the centenary celebration of Seigmeister's birth. The performance also includes Jewish-themed works by Leonard Bernstein ("Three Wedding Dances" from Bridal Suite, for piano three (!) hands and four songs written for various famous singing friends), Michael Alec Rose ("The Tree of Life"), David Leisner ("Acrobats" based on a short story of Polish Jews called "The Tumblers"), Louis Karchin ("A Way Separate" with poetry by Ruth Whitman and Hannah Senesh) and Israeli-American composer Max Stern ("Quartet from the East"). These composers have shown a continuing interest in writing music with Jewish themes and references, among their other works.
Music in Our Time: 2009 is a collaboration of the American Society for Jewish Music and the Mannes College of the New School of Music, under the leadership of Dean Joel Lester. Students from the College have frequently participated in performances of Jewish contemporary music, in an effort by the Society and the School to introduce Jewish-themed music into to the repertoire generally offered and performed in academic and conservatory settings.
For tickets $18 ($12 members); $6 for Students and Seniors, call 212-868-4444 or www.smarttix.com or contact the Box Office: (917) 606-8200 / boxoffice@cjh.org.
February 20, 2009
Long-lost Mendelssohn Piece will bePerformed in Austin
Mendelssohn is have a good year in 2009. Last month in New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage held concerts of some "new" Mendelssohn works... newly rehearsed after some 100 years. This Saturday Feb 21, 2009, the Austin Civic Orchestra will perform "Fantasy and Variations for Two Pianos and Orchestra on the Gypsy March from Weber's 'Preziosa' " by Felix Mendelssohn. This will be the first time this piece has been heard since 1833. The manuscript piece, never published, and first performed by Ignaz Moscheles and Felix Mendelssohn was set aside and later owned by Anton Rubinstein. After he donated it, it was lost in the archive of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia for over a hundred years. Southwestern University professor J. Michael Cooper and Jonathan Bellman of the University of Northern Colorado, have painstakingly reconstructed the work. It will be performed on Saturday evening. There are still hundreds of Mendelssohn manuscript scores yet to be found and resurrected. Read the entire story from Austin 360.com at:http://www.austin360.com/news/content/arts/stories/2009/02/0216mendelssohn.html
Concert: 8 p.m. Saturday Feb. 21
Alma Thomas Theatre, Southwestern Univ.
1001 E. University Ave., Georgetown.
$15. purchase tickets at www.austincivicorchestra.org
February 15, 2009
PercaDu with Mehta, Morag and Yarivm in NY Philharmonic
Feel the beat of today's young Israel in PercaDu's performance of Avner Dorman's percussion concerto Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! Don’t miss Adi Morag, Tomer Yarivm, Zubin Mehta, and the Philharmonic on this night of exhilarating music-making. A Hear and Now Performance.
Url: nyphil.org/mehta
Mendelssohn's Oratorio Elijah FREE concert
Free Synagogue of Flushing will present a special
performance of Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah on Friday, February 27, 8:15 PM.
The concert is FREE and open to the public.
It will feature celebrated cantor Steven Pearlston and the distinguished Free Synagogue choir. Robert Mobsby will perform in the role of Elijah and Robert Barrows will play the synagogue s magnificent historic pipe organ, which dates back to 1927. It is the only pipe organ at a synagogue in Queens.
Free Synagogue is located at 41-60 Kissena Boulevard (between Sanford and Main Street), Flushing. Free on-site parking available. Please call 718-961-0030 or visit www.freesynagogue.org for more information. About Free Synagogue of Flushing
Founded in 1917, Free Synagogue stands proudly in one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the United States. As the oldest Reform Synagogue in Queens, it was built through the efforts of the Hebrew Woman's Aid Society of Flushing. The Free Synagogue movement is based on four principals: freedom of the pulpit for the rabbi; freedom of the pew - no reserved seating in the sanctuary; direct, full participation of the community; and dedication to the ideals of liberal democracy and commitment to the Jewish faith. The founders belief in commitment, freedom and equality of the sexes remain guiding principals today.
The synagogue itself is an architectural marvel. The neo-classical building, designed by Maurice Courland, features a massive portico supported by four ionic pillars topped by a pediment inscribed with the words of Isaiah, For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. In the magnificent sanctuary, dark green pilasters are graced with intricate gold-leaf filigree. Stained glass windows, crafted in Czechoslovakia, surround the sanctuary in rich radiant colors. A stained-glass dome designed around a Star of David is centered in the domed ceiling that covers the entire sanctuary.
February 01, 2009
Important Critical Edition of Leo Zeitlin's Music Published
As part of their series on Recent Researches in the Music of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century, AR Editions has released an important critical edition of Jewish music, the Leo Zeitlin: Chamber Music. Paula Eisenstein Baker and Robert Nelson are the editors. This is the work of many years of research and labor to bring this performance and critical score to light. This music is important to American Jewish community because Leo Zeitlin (1884-1930) was one of the significant members of the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music group of Jewish musicians establishing a Jewish national school, who came to America. The musicans of the St. Petersburg Society brought those musical ideas both to Israel and America; that organization being the ancestor of today's American Society of Jewish Music. This score should be on the purchase list of conservatories as well as college music departments, and those schools with Jewish Studies who are looking for chamber music with Jewish content for concerts and events.For details on the content, visit:
http://www.areditions.com/rr/rrn/n051.html Here's what the publishers are saying at: "Lost from view and largely unperformed for over half a century, the thirty-two extant works of chamber music by Leo Zeitlin (1884-1930) are published here, most of them for the first time. All but two are Jewish in content. A superbly talented composer and arranger, Zeitlin’s career as a violinist, violist, conductor, and impresario began in St. Petersburg. There he became active in the Society for Jewish Folk Music, the catalyst for a brief but golden age of art music composed on Jewish themes. He subsequently taught and conducted in Ekaterinoslav and Vilna before emigrating in 1923 to New York, where he was a violist and arranger for the Capitol Theatre. The works date from all these periods of Zeitlin’s career and are writtten for various combinations, instrumental and vocal. This edition describes Zeitllin and his milieu and includes historical and analytic discussions of each of the works. "
January 28, 2009
200th Anniversary All-Mendelssohn Recital
Thursday, Feb 5, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan (30 West 68th street), pianist Peep Lassmann and cellist Yosif Feigelson will be offering an all-Mendelssohn recital. The concert will celebrate Mendelssohn just two days after his actual birthday, exactly 200 years ago!Tickets are $20/$10 students and members. Children under 12 free.
For more information: www.swfs.org
or www.yfeigelson.com
November 10, 2008
Pro Musica Hebraica at Kennedy Center in Washington
Pro Musica Hebraica is devoted to presenting Jewish classical music — much of it lost, forgotten, or rarely performed — in a concert-hall setting. On November 18, 2008, the ARC Ensemble of Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music presents works by Mieczysław Weinberg, Szymon Laks, and Sergei Prokofiev all composed in the aftermath of world war.Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Terrace Theater
The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
7:30 PM
http://promusicahebraica.org/index.html
ARC Ensemble
ARC is the ensemble-in-residence of Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music; its members are all soloists and chamber musicians and senior faculty members of the Glenn Gould School, the Conservatory's professional training division. Since its creation in 2002, ARC has presented a number of highly successful concert series and symposia in Toronto, including explorations of music of the Holocaust - Music Reborn; programmes of British chamber music from the early 20th century, and a series devoted to chamber music by film composers - Reel Music. These projects have all been broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and by National Public Radio, throughout North America.
November 09, 2008
A Test of Faith
A Test of Faith, a One-Act OperaErev Shabbat
Friday, November 21st, 2008 - 8:00 PM
Free to the Public
Valley Beth Shalom, 15739 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA
"Test of Faith" is an award-winning one-act opera based on of the Bible's most dramatic stories, the story of the Akedah, the near-sacrifice of Isaac. Renowned opera stars Jonathan Mack and Ron Li-Paz will take the roles of God and Abraham; Jonathan Zur is Isaac. Lawrence Goldberg, the composer, will conduct.
Following the performance, Rabbi Edward Feinstein, Senior Rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom, will engage the composer and the performers in a discussion of the opera and the story of the Akedah, and its impact on world religions.
July 20, 2008
Israeli Musicological Society
Visit the Israeli Musicological Society new website. It also has the online journal Min-Ad which has many interesting articles. The archives of the journal is also available online. http://israel-musicological-society.huji.ac.il/June 20, 2008
Judith Shatin Compositions -- Upcoming Performances
Chai Variations on Eliahu HaNavi, for solo piano, will be
performed by noted pianist Jose Lopez at the Bass Museum in
Miami on 8/17/08 at 3:00 p.m. The address is 2121 Park Ave.,
Miami Beach. For more information, visit www.bassmuseum.org.
A new version of Chai Variations on Eliahu HaNavi, for string quartet, has been commissioned by the Cassatt Quartet. It will be premiered by them on 10/2/08 at 8:00 p.m. at the Thalia Theatre of Symphony Space (Broadway and 9th St), in New York City. For more information visit www.cassattquartet.com.
And for more information on the composer, who frequently composes on Jewish topics, visit www.judithshatin.com. More about Florida program:
Sunday, August 17
3:00PM
Concert - A Program of Music by Jewish Composers
The program features works by Jewish composers from the 19th and 20th centuries. Selections include the astounding "Fairy Tales" composed in 1910 by the 13-year-old Erich Wolfgang Korngold, possibly the greatest musical prodigy of all time, the enigmatic French virtuoso Charles Valentin Alkan’s "Petites Fantaisies," and the works of two women composers from different centuries: 19th-century composer Fanny Mendelssohn (older sister of Felix Mendelssohn) and contemporary composer Judith Shatin.
Performed by pianist José López, Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at the Florida International University School of Music.
Free with museum admission
For more information about Judith Shatin, visit her webiste at: http://www.judithshatin.com/
May 12, 2008
Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival 2008
Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival 2008 presentsISRAEL@60 May 21-June 1
http://www.pjmf.net
TICKETS for all events $20 general admission, $15 seniors, $10 students
MORE INFORMATION at www.pjmf.net
TICKETS available at www.proartstickets.org
(412) 394-3353
"ESTA in Concert"
Wednesday, May 21 7:30pm
Byham Theater, 101 6th St.
ESTA is a unique band from Israel with an innovative and original sound. ESTA's music combines the aromas of world music, the power of rock, and the spirit of jazz into a powerful, energetic new force that crosses genres, styles and borders. Proclaimed as "Israel's most original instrumental band", ESTA has toured prestigious festivals and venues throughout Europe, Israel and the U.S., including a special performance for President Clinton at a White House reception in honor of Israel's 50th Anniversary.
"Jerusalem of Gold"
Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival Orchestra
Children's Festival Chorus of Pittsburgh
Gila Goldstein, piano
Nurit Pacht, violin
Re'ut Ben-Ze'ev, soprano
Lucas Richman, conductor
Wednesday, May 28 7:30pm
Katz Theatre, JCC of Greater Pittsburgh 5738 Forbes Ave.
Three gifted Israeli soloists take center stage in our popular orchestral concert. Pianist Gila Goldstein, violinist Nurit Pacht, and soprano Re'ut Ben-Ze'ev join the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival Orchestra to perform works by prominent Israeli composers Paul Ben-Haim, Julius Chajes, and Noam Sheriff. And don't miss the Children's Festival Chorus perform a stirring rendition of Naomi Shemer's "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav". Lucas Richman conducts.
"Israeli Songs and Dances"
featuring Nurit Pacht, violin
Gilad Harel, clarinet
with Dennis O'Boyle, violin
*Marylene Gingras-Roy, viola
Aron Zelkowicz, cello
Luz Manriquez, piano
Sunday, June 1 7:30pm
Levy Hall, Rodef Shalom Congregation 4905 Fifth Ave.
From the early settlers of Palestine to the rising generation of young composers, Israel has produced an abundance of vital music over the past sixty years. Our celebration continues as violinist Nurit Pacht and clarinetist Gilad Harel join local artists in music by Jan Radzynski, Nizan Leibovich, Oded Zehavi, Jonathan Keren, and others, who evoke the folk traditions of their homeland by combining Arabic, Yemenite, Hebraic and spiritual elements.
The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival is co-sponsored by the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and Rodef Shalom Congregation. The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival is made possible in part by Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative.
http://www.pjmf.net
TICKETS for all events $20 general admission, $15 seniors, $10 students
MORE INFORMATION at www.pjmf.net
TICKETS available at www.proartstickets.org
(412) 394-3353
Music in Our Time 2008 at CJH
On Sunday, June 1 at 3 PM, at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, NYC), the American Society for Jewish Music, in association with the American Jewish Historical Society and the Mannes College of Music of the New School, presents "Music in Our Time 2008," our annual concert of contemporary music.As those of you who have attended the Society's previous concerts of contemporary music know, not only are these concerts an important part of the Society's mission, but they are filled with vital, committed performances of Jewish music by wonderful artists.
The program for "Music in Our Time 2008" consists of works by Paul Richards, Arkadie Kougell, Ofer Ben-Amots, Lionel Semiatin and Paul Schonfield.
For tickets, please contact the CJH Theater Box Office, phone: (917) 606-8200
email: boxoffice@cjh.org .
April 28, 2008
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
April 22, 2008
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. *****
March 25, 2008
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.
March 23, 2008
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.February 12, 2008
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
January 06, 2008
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 ManringDecember 16, 2007
Leroy Osmon releases Zeraim chamber work
Announcing a new chamber work by composer Leroy Osmon: Zeraim from The Book of RuthScored 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, 2008The 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.
October 21, 2007
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 DIRECTORSt. 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
August 20, 2007
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.
August 08, 2007
Jay Gottlieb in Seattle performing Messiaen
Northwest Mahler OrchestraSunday, 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
July 10, 2007
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.
April 29, 2007
TEREZÍN MEMORIAL Concerts
TEREZÍN MEMORIALpresents
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
March 22, 2007
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.
March 18, 2007
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 24The 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
February 27, 2007
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.
February 26, 2007
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.February 15, 2007
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."
January 17, 2007
Eleanor Cory Piece to be performed at Mannes
Tuesday, January 30, 2007, 8:00 PMMANNES 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
October 16, 2006
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.
October 10, 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.
September 18, 2006
Save the Date--Trios from Terezin
Trios from TerezinPerformed 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.
July 06, 2006
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.
May 31, 2006
Shostakovich at 100 Held in LA
Shostakovich at 100 - A Community ConcertWednesday, 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
May 12, 2006
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
May 05, 2006
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=112Often 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.
May 01, 2006
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
February 26, 2006
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"
February 22, 2006
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".
January 29, 2006
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.
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.
January 18, 2006
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
December 26, 2005
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/
December 20, 2005
Central in Song at Wix Hall, Central Synagogue in London
Wednesday 21 DecemberCentral 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.
November 14, 2005
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.
November 08, 2005
'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 Kodly Quartet and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Boris Berman and Sergei Dorenski. She also studied with Maria Joo 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
November 01, 2005
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."
October 03, 2005
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 Cantors 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 albums 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 Englishmuch 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 Sulzers "Shema" and Lewandowskis "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 Kerns "Cant 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 "Yihyu Lratson" 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 Universitys Shepherd School of Music with a degree in vocal performance and opera. In 1993, she received her Masters 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 Raanana 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 Childrens 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.
September 18, 2005
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.July 23, 2005
"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 BernMay 17, 2005
TORONTO JEWISH FOLK CHOIR GIVES 79TH SPRING CONCERT
SUNDAY, JUNE 5, with the TORONTO MANDOLIN ORCHESTRA
The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir marks the 60 anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the Nazi death camps in its 79th annual spring concert, Sunday, June 5, 7 p.m. at the Leah Posluns Theatre, 4588 Bathurst St. (parking available). Alexander Veprinsky conducts, with Lina Zemelman on piano, and the
Toronto Mandolin Orchestra as guest artists. Tickets, $22, $18 seniors and
students, are available at the door, or in advance from Jewish bookstores or by
calling 416-593-0750. Children under 12 are admitted free; group rates are
available on request. Information may also be obtained via www.winchevskycentre.org
(click on Institutions) or by e-mailing tjfolkchoir@sympatico.ca.
The major work is Di Naye Hagode (The New Saga), a choral tone poem by Jewish-American composer Max Helfman (1901-1963), orchestrated by Maestro Veprinsky. The work commemorates the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that began on the first night of Passover, April 19, 1943. The text is from the long narrative poem Shotns fun varshever geto (Shadows of the Warsaw Ghetto) by martyred Soviet Yiddish poet Itzik Feffer (1900-1952). Along with the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra, the work features soprano Miriam Eskin, tenor Steve Szmutni, and narrator Ruth Borchiver. Also on the program is an eclectic mix of songs on Jewish themes in Yiddish and Hebrew. Included are a new medley of songs by the great Yiddish songwriter Avrum Goldfaden arranged by Maestro Veprinsky, choruses in Italian and Russian from Verdi's Nabucco and Borodin's Prince Igor, Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm, and a French-Canadian folksong. Solos are sung by sopranos Miriam Eskin and Belva Spiel, and bass Herman Rombouts. As well, the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra will perform orchestral medleys of Jewish and Ukrainian songs, arranged by Maestro Veprinsky. The TJFC gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the Ben and Hilda Katz Foundation, the Miransky Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, and Jim Buller.
May 13, 2005
LOST CONCERTO COMES ALIVE IN SARATOGA
Work of forgotten Jewish composer heard at last
LOST CONCERTO COMES ALIVE IN SARATOGA
By Richard Scheinin
reprinted here with the kind permission of the San Jose Mercury News
Last Sunday afternoon, in a Saratoga church, the newly reconstructed piano concerto of a largely forgotten Jewish composer named Eric Zeisl was given its world premiere. This was a major and unlikely event, for Zeisl, born 100 years ago this month, had been a formidable composer, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Vienna who made his way to Los Angeles, raised a family, wrote prolifically -- everything from film music to opera -- and then died in 1959 of a heart attack after teaching a night class at Los Angeles City College. Igor Stravinsky was among those who grieved his passing, a testament to Zeisl's standing among composers in Los Angeles, where Stravinsky was an migr. Yet few of Zeisl's works were performed in his lifetime and not a single one had been given a premiere since his death at age 53. And now, out of the blue, Jason Klein, a conductor with an addiction for rare repertory, was about to lead the Saratoga Symphony, a spirited little orchestra filled with devoted amateurs, in a performance of Zeisl's Piano Concerto in C Major, completed 53 years ago and relegated to a dusty drawer in Los Angeles. (more... to read the complete article...)
Recovering a voice
``The first performance ever awaits you in a few minutes,'' Klein, a gabby maestro with a knack for creating excitement, told his 250 or so listeners at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, the orchestra's base of operations. Zeisl's daughter, Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg -- she is married to Ronald Schoenberg, son of Arnold Schoenberg, the composer, who also was a refugee in Los Angeles -- had driven up from Southern California for the big event and was seated in the ninth row. So was Malcolm S. Cole, a retired UCLA musicologist and Zeisl's biographer, whom Klein now introduced as ``the world's leading expert on the music of Eric Zeisl.''
Loud applause broke out as Cole, very much the rumpled professor, got up and told the audience about Zeisl's ``odyssey'': barely escaping Vienna in November 1938, the day after Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom, and moving to Paris, then New York and finally Los Angeles, where he wrote the piano concerto in three movements that are ``spacious, technically demanding and hauntingly
beautiful.''
A tingly excitement filled the church as Cole described the detective work involved in resurrecting the music: Zeisl had left two messy, handwritten versions that needed to be transcribed and cleared of ``gremlins,'' the wrong notes and other miscues that inevitably sneak into a score before it comes to life in rehearsal. And this piece had never been rehearsed by an orchestra until last month.
Still, ``the recovery of the voice behind these notes'' is well under way, Cole assured the audience, proudly describing the concerto's ``soaring melodies, irresistible dances, intense modal harmonies and intricate counterpoint -- you are sharing Zeisl's journey from exile to sanctuary.'' And then Klein blessed the music's maiden voyage: ``May this concerto have a long life,'' he said, calling out the soloist, pianist Daniel Glover of San Francisco, who has a history of learning prodigiously difficult music in
short amounts of time.
A youthful 47-year-old in a black tuxedo, Glover, smiling shyly, sat down at the piano and, following Klein's downbeat, launched into Zeisl's forgotten concerto. A dignified sadness Wow! Immediately, there was a wonderful tunefulness, a unison melody for strings
and piano -- and it was soaring, gorgeous, the piano part now shadowed, a little shakily, by one of the horns. Amid trumpet fanfares and flying violins -- out of tune, but spirited, these string players -- Glover, not shaky at all, rocketed through the big melodies, adorned with all sorts of opulent trills and tumbling flourishes, and broke out into massive cadenzas.
``This guy really plays,'' Cole murmured after the lengthy first movement, which had been filled with sharply percussive dancing passages and ecstatically clanging chords in the keyboard's upper regions. The glinty brilliance of the music, and its way of putting the piano in dialogue with the orchestra, was reminiscent of Bartk. Its playfulness recalled Prokofiev. Clearly, Zeisl had his influences, but also, as Cole had been saying, his own voice: In the second movement, it was heard in the haunting tunefulness, the piano painting notes against a soft backdrop of teeming strings.
In the third movement, the mood turned grave, spikier and more dissonant, with a whirling danse macabre and then a Semitic melody, dressed up like Rachmaninoff, but still expressing a dignified sadness.
The audience sat rapt as Glover, an incisive, exciting and apparently
tireless player, drove the music toward its big chiming finish.
Then the audience burst into applause. What an event! ``Bravo!'' shouted Zeisl-Schoenberg. Standing, she looked at Cole, seated next to her, and, with a big smile, said, ``Well, that was a thrill.''
``Oh,'' answered the beaming Cole, obviously beside himself, ``that was exciting.'' ``He's terrific,'' Zeisl-Schoenberg, still applauding, said of Glover. ``He discovered the voice behind the notes,'' Cole said, nodding. ``They all did.''
Zeisl-Schoenberg, a retired professor of German language and literature at Pomona College, seemed happily overwhelmed by the experience: In a way, it had brought her father to life. She could recall so much about him: his piano playing, teaching and composing in the family's West Hollywood home. She even recalled living room rehearsals for the piano concerto with Eda Schlatter Jameson, the intended soloist for a performance in Vienna that never materialized.
Odyssey of a concerto
A melancholy man who missed his country of birth, Zeisl never returned to Vienna. How odd: Here in Saratoga, in an Episcopal church, 46 years after his death, the concerto finally was born: ``The second movement had a wistfulness, a sadness that reflected what my father was like,'' Zeisl-Schoenberg said. ``My father was full of melody.'' Broadly speaking, the rediscovery of Zeisl's piano concerto is part of the renewed interest in music by Jewish composers who were persecuted by the Nazis. Some of these composers were forever silenced: Viktor Ullmann was gassed at
Auschwitz in 1944; Erwin Schulhoff died of tuberculosis in a Bavarian concentration camp in 1942. Others escaped, some landing in Los Angeles, which became sanctuary to an
entire community of Jewish migr composers: Schoenberg, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Alexandre Tansman, Hanns Eisler, Ernst Toch, Nathaniel Shilkret.
Zeisl -- who barely knew Schoenberg, by the way, though his daughter
eventually would carry Schoenberg's name -- was among the youngest and least well-known of the bunch. He had fled Vienna at age 33, before his musical reputation was firmly established. Living in West Hollywood with his wife, Gertrud, a Viennese lawyer who became a Los Angeles schoolteacher, he went to work for MGM, scoring music for
``Lassie Come Home,'' ``Baton'' and other films, but never received an on-screen credit.
He turned to teaching (one of his students at City College was Jerry Goldsmith, who became a distinguished Hollywood film composer). And encouraged by composer friends in California, including Darius Milhaud, he turned exclusively
to classical composition: operas, ballet music, choral music, all sorts of chamber works and orchestral opuses, including a cello concerto, which he never heard. It was performed at his memorial service. There have been occasional recordings of Zeisl's compositions through the years, as well as a handful of performances. Last November, his Requiem Ebraico, written in 1944 after he learned his parents had perished in the camps, was
performed at Stanford University. But the piano concerto -- this was a mystery.
Luckily, there lives in Saratoga a Stanford engineering professor named Robert Feigelson, an aficionado of forgotten composers, who once studied piano with a niece of Shilkret's. Two years ago, Feigelson assisted Sterling Records, a small Swedish label, in the release of a CD containing music by one of his
heroes, the pianist and composer Franz Xaver Scharwenka. Coincidentally, he learned, Klein was about to mount a Saratoga Symphony performance of a Scharwenka concerto, with the Russian-born, Fremont-reared piano prodigy Natasha Paremski as soloist. But Klein needed money to stage the event, so Feigelson began to raise it, receiving help from another lover of obscure music, Jim Semadeni of Kansas City.
It was Semadeni who mentioned the Zeisl concerto to Feigelson, suggesting that the composer's family might have a manuscript.
And so the Eric Zeisl project was born, on the cusp of the composer's centenary. Feigelson mentioned it to Klein who, naturally, was enthused at the chance to introduce his Saratoga
audience to more glorious music from the margins of history.
Glover, a natural for this sort of hyper-virtuosic challenge, was enlisted.
So was a Stanford music undergraduate named David Nunez, who transcribed the handwritten music into a printed score. One thing led to the next and soon Zeisl-Schoenberg and Cole were embroiled in the plot. The professor had been studying Zeisl's music since the late '60s, when one of Zeisl's nephews, enrolled in one of Cole's classes, said ``he wanted to write a paper on his uncle, who happened to be a composer,'' Cole recalled
after Sunday's performance. ``I said, `Who's that?' ''
```Eric Zeisl.'' ``That got the ball rolling,'' Cole said. He began visiting Gertrud Zeisl, who lived within walking distance of the UCLA campus: ``Friday was our day.'' He set down an extensive oral history, helped establish the Eric Zeisl Archive at UCLA and, with Barbara Barclay, a colleague, co-authored ``Armseelchen:
The Life and Music of Eric Zeisl'' (Greenwood Press), published in 1984. 'Armseelchen' is German for ``poor little soul'' and also is the name of a song written by Zeisl as a young man. ``Zeisl felt it was symbolic of his life,'' Cole said. Eventually, Cole and Zeisl-Schoenberg hope there will be more performances
of the concerto and a professional recording. It isn't likely that the Saratoga Symphony will be involved: After all, its
tympanist counts out loud; its string players are not intonation specialists. But the doctors, lawyers and computer engineers who play in the gutsy little orchestra sure put themselves into Sunday's performance. It was imperfect but, more importantly, it got inside Zeisl's lyricism, his melancholy, his spirit. Afterward, dozens of listeners lingered, congratulating Klein, Glover, Zeisl-Schoenberg and Cole. ``Well, we were all part of a first,'' the professor said.
Glover was among the last to leave. ``I'm honored to have been involved in a project like this,'' he said. ``Everyone's thanking me and my feeling is -- what a feather in my cap.''
May 11, 2005
THREE's A CROWD!! (TRIOS GALORE !!!)
DOWNTOWN CHAMBER TRIO
Reiko Kawabata, violin; William Blount, clarinet
Daniel Barrett, cello;
Mimi Stern-Wolfe, piano
Bruce Lazarus: Divertimento (commissioned by Downtown Chamber Trio)
Yuri Bortz: Trio for Now and Then for violin, clarinet, piano
Darius Milhaud: Suite for clarinette, violin, piano
Michael Cohen: Monday Morning Piano Trio (premiere)
Peter Schickele: Serenade for Three
SUNDAY MAY 22 @ 3:00 PM
ST. MARKS in the BOWERY (10th St. & Second Av), New York City
Suggested Donation: $10-15; (Seniors, Students $8)
Information: (212) 477 1594; dmpmimi@msn.com
DOWNTOWN MUSIC PRODUCTIONS
MIMI STERN-WOLFE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
May 03, 2005
EAST MIDWOOD JEWISH CENTER PRESENTS A SONG OF ASCENT
On Sunday, May 22nd, at 4:00 PM, the East Midwood Jewish Center will
present A Song of Ascent the Synagogue Music of Salamone Rossi an afternoon of Jewish sacred music from seventeenth century Italy. The concert will take place at the East Midwood Jewish Center, 1625 Ocean Avenue, in Brooklyn.
This extraordinary concert of Jewish Baroque music will be performed by Cantica Salamonica, a group of professional Early Music singers who have come together under the direction of Cantor Mark Opatow of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan.
Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors and students.
Tickets are available in advance at the East Midwood Jewish Center and will also be available at the box office on the day of the performance. For ticket information, please call 718.338.3800. Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear Rossis music performed in
Brooklyn.
April 18, 2005
Screening at Museum of Television and Radio
The Museum of Television and Radio
cordially invites you to a private screening of
Regina Resnik Presents
The American Jewish Composers in Classical Song
Regina Resnik, Narrator
Roslyn Jhunever Barak, Soprano
Michael Philip Davis, Tenor
Charles Robert Stephens, Baritone
Vlad Iftinca, Piano
Thursday, May 12, 2005 at 6 p.m.
25 West 52nd Street
New York City
This concert was videotaped before an invited audience on January 19, 2005 at the Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center. The program includes four world premieres, including a work by composer John Corigliano and librettist William M. Hoffman, written especially for the program, two American premieres and a New York premiere.
RSVP Michael Philip Davis at
mickeypd@earthlink.net
or (212) 769-4083
March 30, 2005
Harold Shapero Honored by Lydian String Quartet and friends
Friday, April 29, 2005, 8:00 P.M.
The Center for Arts in Natick, MA, invites you to join the Lydian String
Quartet, Edwin Barker, double bass, and Marvin Wolfthal, piano, as they
honor composer Harold Shapero on his 85th birthday. The evening will
feature his Serenade in D for String Quintet, String Quartet, and String
Trio. Harold Shapero was a founding member of the Brandeis University music
department in 1951. He was director of the electronic music studio and
taught at Brandeis for 37 years. A birthday reception will follow the performance. Tickets are $25. Those connected to Brandeis get a discount when ordering tickets: (508) 647-0097. Visiting the Nartick Arts website:
www.natickarts.org The Center for Arts in Natick is located at 14 Summer St. in downtown Natick, MA.
March 29, 2005
American Society for Jewish Music Concert
American Society for Jewish MusicAmerican Jewish Historical Society
Present
Contemporary American Composers
Works by
Bruce Adolphe
Victoria Bond
Tzipora Jochsberger
Steven L. Rosenhaus
Faye Ellen Silverman
Judith Lang Zaimont
In cooperation with the Mannes College of Music
April 10, 2005
12:30 PM
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York City
Concert to be preceded by a continental breakfast at 11:45 AM
For tickets call (917) 606-8200
Meira Warshauers Yishakeyni in Baltimore by Jerusalem
Jerusalem Lyric Trio Tour Performance at Temple Beth El on April 3
Meira Warshauers "Yishakeyni (Sweeter than Wine) for soprano, flute
and piano will be performed by the Jerusalem Lyric Trio on Sunday, April 3, 2005 3:30 PM at
Temple Beth El, 8101 Park Heights Ave
Baltimore, Maryland
The piece, a setting of the first four verses of "Song of Songs," the
great love song of the Bible, will be performed by the Trio as part of their current U.S. tour. "Yishakeyni" was commissioned by Columbia
College and premiered by the Jerusalem Lyric Trio in Columbia, South
Carolina, September, 2003.
This program is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Congregation Beth El at 410-484-0411 or visit them online at
http://www.bethelbalto.com/.
The Jerusalem Lyric Trio is a unique Israeli ensemble that highlights the religious and cultural heritage of the Jewish people in its performances. Since 1995, they have performed throughout Western and Eastern Europe, the United States, South America, Russia and Israel. Visit them online at http://www.jerusalemlyrictrio.com/. Meira Warshauers 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. 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 Transcontinental. Her latest Bracha Newsletter is online at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/feb05/MW_nws_020504.htm. You can find much more about her at - http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/ For more information about Meira Warshauer, please contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-797-9166 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.
March 16, 2005
Zamir Chorale of Boston
On June 5, 2005, the Zamir Chorale of Boston will celebrate its 36th anniversary with a gala concert at Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, MA. The Zamir Chorale and Alumni Chorale will be joined by the Zamir Orchestra for a performance of Ernest Bloch's masterwork, The Sacred Service. Also featured will be four shorter works commissioned by the Chorale: Shir Ahavah by Jef Labes, Rainbow by Daniel Pinkham, Harninu by Benjie-Ellen Schiller, and the premiere of Et Hazzamir Higgiya by Yehezkel Braun. The four composers will join moderator Cathy Fuller for a meet-the-composer session, open to the public, before the concert. The concert begins at 7:30 PM and the meet-the-composer session at 6:15. For further information call 617-244-6333 or visit www.zamir.org.
March 15, 2005
Israeli Cellist At Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall
Israeli cellist Benjamin Shapira returns to NY to celebrate his new CD "Romantic Music for Cello". He will be performing an all-romantic program at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall on April 30th, 8:30 pm.
Shapira's international career was launched after his celebrated Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall performance of the Complete Bach Suites for Cello Solo. This CD features selections from Mendelssohn, Schumann, Saint-Saens and and Dvorak. He performs with his mother, pianist Shulamith Shapira, a graduate of the State Conservatory of Music in Bucharest under the supervision of legendary teacher Florica Musicescu. More information about the concert at:
http://www.taltalproductions.com/about_the_concert.htm For ticket information call (888)43-CELLO or CarnegieCharge at (212)247-7800.
CD's available at selected Tower Records and on the web at:
amazon.com,
towerrecords.com,
cdbaby.com and
taltalproductions.com
From Jerusalem to Carnegie Hall
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, as well as his home country, Israel. "It always seemed to me that the cello, with its human-sounding voice, is most suitable for Romantic expression", says Shapira, "almost as though the cello contains, within its four strings and curved body, the breath of Romantic life itself. No wonder the 19th century became the cello golden era".
Continuum Presents American ComposersJewish Music
American ComposersJewish Music
World-renowned contemporary music ensemble Continuum performs works by American composers whose inspired use of Jewish themes has produced some of this countrys most powerful music. Program will include works by Aaron Copland, Mario Davidovsky, Osvaldo Golijov, Paul Schoenfield, Francis Schwartz, Roberto Sierra, and others. (Miriam Gideon's "Three Biblical Masks") Continuum consistently offers some of the most intriguing concerts in New York. The New York Times
Mon, Mar 28
8 pm
$10 members/$15 nonmembers of JCC in Manhattan
MUSIC/EAYW5
Location: The JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. (Program room assignments will be available at the JCC Customer Service Desk, in the lobby of the Samuel Priest Rose Building.)
March 14, 2005
Regina Resnik Presents The Classic Kurt Weill
Program to air on CUNY TV Channel 75 on March 21, 9 p.m.
City University Television will offer Regina Resnik Presents The Classic Kurt Weill as its first live classical concert production, to air on CUNY TV Channel 75, Monday, March 21 at 9 p.m. (also 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.), and again on Sunday, March 27 at 1 p.m. This acclaimed concert was originally performed at the Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, and was made possible by a generous grant from the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund.
The Classic Kurt Weill features opera legend Regina Resnik, who presents and narrates the program, and soprano Jennifer Aylmer, tenor Michael Philip Davis, and pianist Kenneth Merrill. Highlighting the classically trained voices for which Kurt Weill originally wrote, the program traces his opera, song and musical theater works from Berlin in the 1920s to Paris in the 1930s and New York in the 1940s. The artists draw on the composer's endless array of musical styles and his profound sense of social conscience in songs from The Threepenny Opera, Lady in the Dark, Knickerbocker Holiday, Street Scene, and many others. Special attention is paid to Weill's presence as a Jewish composer in Germany during Hitler's rise to power, and the composer's ardent embrace of America, his adoptive homeland.
The next collaboration between CUNY TV and Regina Resnik Presents will be The American Jewish Composers in Classical Song, which will air the end of May. This concert will feature four world premires and two U.S. premires, including a work by composer John Corigliano and librettist William M. Hoffman written especially for the occasion. The program was made possible by a generous grant from the Ledler Foundation.
Both programs are part of CUNY TV's ongoing "Celebrate 350" series, commemorating the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America.
CUNY TV is seen in the five boroughs of Manhattan on Channel 75 on Time Warner Cable and Cablevision systems, and on Channel 109 on RCN.
February 23, 2005
Southern Jewish Composers
On Monday, March 7th at 7 p.m., Meira Warshauers "Spirals of Light" for flute, cello and piano, will be presented in concert Jewish Museum of Florida, 301 Washington Avenue, in Miami Beach. This concert will feature music by Southern Jewish composers and will be performed by an ensemble including pianist Harold Lewin, flutist Elissa Lakofsky and cellist Javier Arias. Also featured in the program will be Judith Shatin's "Janus Quartet", Stephen Dankner's "Trio for clarinet, cello and piano"; and Fredrick Kaufman's "Catalan Concertante for String Quartet." Audiences will be able to meet the composers and have a conversation after the concert. For contact information call 305-672-5044 or visit the Jewish Museum website at jewish museum Meira Warshauer is an Associate Music faculty at Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina. Her music has been performed and recorded throughout the US, Israel, Europe and Asia. She has received numerous awards from ASCAP, the America Music Center, Meet the Composer and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Stephen Dankner has composed over sixty works, including seven sympoinies, seven string quartets, five concerti, three major song cycles, sonatas, trios and a host of film scores and solo piano music. Dankner has been commissioned by major symphonys and is on the faculty of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Fredrick Kaufman is a composer of over 100 published compositions that have been performed in Europe, Israel and the US. His ballets have been danced by many international groups. He is former Director of the School of Music at Florida International University where he is currently Artist-in-Residence. Judith Shatin is a composer whose music combines digital and acoustic media. She has composed for numerous acoustic ensembles, and dance pieces. She has received four National Endowment of the Arts fellowships, as well as numerous awards from US and foreign cities. She has been commissioned from many groups, including chamber and symphonies and has many recordings out. She is Professor and Director of the Viginia Center for Computer Music at the University of Virginia.January 04, 2005
Jewish Music in London
January 2005 LONDON
Holocaust related events:
January is Holocaust Memorial month in the UK and we have several exquisite musical events that throw a special light and poignancy on those times. See listing sheet and flyers for events at the Barbican, Wigmore Hall and in the Jewish East End. Please book your tickets directly with the venues.
Wednesday 12 January 2005 6.15 8.00pm (Holocaust Commemoration)
Thwarted Voices: Music Suppressed by the Third Reich
Soloists and Chamber Groups from the Yehudi Menuhin School, Director of Music: Malcolm Singer, perform music by composers who were banned, exiled or murdered by the Nazi regime. Programme includes: Franz Schreker: Intermezzo; Vilm Tausky: Coventry (string quartet) written on entering the bombed Coventry Cathedral; and The Twin Towers (string quartet) written by young pupil Oscar Perks when he was twelve years old, at the time of the atrocity.
Barbican Art Gallery, Silk Street, London EC2
Concert free to same-day ticket holders for the exhibition
Open daily 11am -8.00pm (except Tuesday and Thursday closes 6.00pm)
Exhibition: 8 Concessions 6 0845 121 6826
JMI in association with the Barbican Art Gallery
More concerts:
Sunday January 16 "Homage to Szymon Laks"
Sunday January 23 "We want the light"
Sunday January 23 "Songs of Praise"
Wednesday January 26 "Entartete Musik"
Thursday January 27 "Holocaust National Broadcast"
Sunday January 30 "Sephardi Celebration by Candlelight"
Sunday 16 January
Homage to Szymon Laks (1901 1983)
Jacqueline Cole piano
Szymon Laks studied in Warsaw and Paris and after deportation, survived though his music becoming violinist and conductor of the Auschwitz II Mens Orchestra. This concert will present two UK Premieres of Laks works for solo piano written almost immediately after his liberation and return to political exile in Paris 1945 and also works by Haas, Chopin, Ullmann, Schul, Messiaen
5pm, Wigmore Hall
36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP, 020 7935 2141
Victor Ullmann Foundation in association with JMI
Sponsors: Clive M Marks FCA and the Polish Cultural Institute, London UK
Sunday 23rd January
We Want the Light A special screening of a film about how music was affected by the Holocaust with an interview with 100 year old Terezin inmate the concert pianist, Alice Herts Sommer. Introduced by film-maker Christopher Nupen.
12:45 - 14:15 Mile End Genesis Cinema, Mile End Road, E1 (nr tube Stepney Green)
Tickets are free but must be reserved. To book: 08700 606 061 or go to www.genesis-cinema.co.uk.
Sunday 23 January BBC1 early evening
Songs of Praise, Watch the Holocaust special edition on BBC 1, featuring The Zemel Choir
Thurs 27 January BBC4
Holocaust National Broadcast, on 27 January from the national event in the presence of The Queen, will include the choir of Great Portland Street Synagogue with Cantor Steven Leas.
Wednesday 26 January
Entartete Musik
An evening of dark and subversive cabaret and song, celebrating the lyrics and music of artists who struggled under the shadow of the Third Reich: Spoliansky, Eisler, Tucholsky, Brecht, Hollaender. Written and directed by Jude Alderson, Musical direction Julian Dawes, with Micaela Leon, Jenni Lush, Sarah Niles and Kieran Buckeridge of the Amazonia Music Theatre Company. Last seen at the Drill Hall where it played to capacity houses.
7.00pm Stepney Community Centre, Beaumont Grove, Stepney Green E1
Free tickets 020 7364 7907 or artsevents.lbth@dial.pipex.com
30 January
Sephardi Celebration by Candlelight
Norman Lebrecht, Compre Adam Musikant Chazan and Choir of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation conducted by Maurice Martin, and also featuring Gemma Rosefield, cello with Yvonne Behar Piano. A repeat of the sell-out concert in December,
20, 15, 7.50
7.30pm Bevis Marks Synagogue 0870 420 3065
New Jewish Music Forum
The Jewish Music Forum, a new initiative of the American Society for Jewish
Music, an affiliate of the American Jewish Historical Society at the Center
for Jewish History, is pleased to announce its inaugural academic seminar
series. This ongoing seminar will feature leading scholars presenting new
research findings and theoretical contributions to the academic study of
Jewish music. All events are free and open to the public.
Jewish Music Forum
Spring 2005 Academic Seminar
"The Study of Music in Jewish Life"
January 28
Professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay, G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music at
Harvard University, Inaugural Lecture, "Memory and History in Jewish Music"
February 11
Professor Edwin Seroussi, Emanuel Alexandre Professor of Musicology at the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, "Studying Jewish Music in Israel:
Achievements, Failures and Challenges for the Future"
Guest chair and respondent: Professor Stephen Blum, City University of New
York
March 11
Professor Judah M. Cohen, New York University, "Who Will Reclaim the Golden
Sounds?: Judaism, Tradition, and Music Scholarship in an American Context"
Guest chair and respondent: Professor Mark Slobin, Wesleyan University
April 8
Professor Mark Kligman, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion,
"Beyond Yiddishland: New Studies from the Jewish Musical Mediterranean"
Guest chair and respondent: Professor Uri Sharvit, Bar-Ilan University
May 13
James Loeffler, Columbia University, "Between Wissenschaft and Etnografiia:
The Search for a Jewish Musical Science in Eurasia, Past and Present"
Guest chair and respondent: Dr. Ludmila Sholokhova, YIVO Institute for
Jewish Research
All session will take place on Friday mornings, beginning at 10:00 AM at the
Center for Jewish History. Please RSVP to the American Society for Jewish
Music at asjm@cjh.orgor
212-294-8328.
Introducing the Jewish Music Forum
The American Society for Jewish Music (ASJM) is pleased to announce the
formation of a major new project, the Jewish Music Forum (JMF). Taking its
name and inspiration from an earlier chapter of ASJM's history, the new
Jewish Music Forum will serve both as a regular meeting place and an
international network for scholars and researchers who are actively studying
Jewish music, as well as a key cultural resource for artists and educators
creating new Jewish music today.
The Jewish Music Forum (JMF) will concentrate on three main areas of
activity. First, JMF will host an annual series of regular academic seminars
at the Center for Jewish History, where AJHS is a partner and ASJM an
affiliate organization. There, participants will come together to present
new research findings, theories and works-in-progress for an audience of
scholars, graduate students and other interested Jewish music specialists.
The aim will be to build up a core group of New York-based participants
representing interdisciplinary interests who will be joined by visiting
researchers. New media technology will allow these sessions to be recorded
and archived on DVDs for interested individuals and academic institutions
well beyond New York.
Beyond this series of academic seminars, JMF will work together with
performers, educators and composers to complement the fruits of academic
labor and create artistic programs for the general public. The academic
seminars will be coordinated with concerts and workshops held at the Center
for Jewish History and elsewhere, providing the public an opportunity to
experience both the rich diversity of Jewish music and the important,
revealing efforts of Jewish music scholarship. The JMF will aim to support
and amplify the efforts of the journal Musica Judaica to bring original
academic research to a wide audience.
Finally, in the interest of promoting the study of Jewish music in larger
American and international academic circles, JMF will also join in
sponsoring events and forums at academic conferences, such as annual
meetings of the Association for Jewish Studies, the American Musicological
Society and the Society for Ethnomusicology. JMF will also serve as the
American affiliate of the Jewish Music Research Centre of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. These efforts will serve to promote awareness of
the important research going on in the field of Jewish music today. By
linking up scholars of Jewish music from disciplines ranging from musicology
to anthropology to history and beyond, JMF intends to develop a professional
network of specialists in Jewish music, who can serve as resources to each
other and the different communities where they live, work and teach.
To lead the project, the American Society for Jewish Music has named James
Loeffler of Columbia University as Executive Director of the Jewish Music
Forum, ASJM Board Member Mark Kligman of Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion as Academic Chair, and Judah M. Cohen of New York
University as Vice-Academic Chair. They are joined as well by a steering
committee comprised of leading scholars from the United States and Israel.
Together this team has assembled the schedule for the first semester of
academic programs centered on the series of academic seminars to be held at
the Center for Jewish History beginning in January 2005.
For further information about the activities of the Jewish Music Forum,
please contact the American Society for Jewish Music by email at
asjm@cjh.org or telephone at 212-294-8328.
"The Study of Music in Jewish Life"
Seminar Jan. - May 2005
The study of Jewish music has its roots in the nineteenth
century European Wissenschaft tradition. The first studies of Jewish music
initially centered on the European Jewish liturgical music, with the prime
focus on the Ashkenazic tradition and only occasional forays into Western
Sephardic traditions. At the turn of the twentieth century the field grew
significantly through major individual and collective efforts in Central and
Eastern Europe as well as Palestine. Studies of artistic and folk traditions
came to form part of the burgeoning academic fields of European musicology
and ethnomusicology. The first attempts at global views of Jewish music
also began to appear in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Idelsohn's Jewish Music in Its Historical Development (1929) is one early
prime example.
During the course of the twentieth century studies of Jewish
music have become more specifically delineated with attempts to uncover
specific aspects of a regional or single tradition rather than a
comprehensive global view. Contemporary studies of Jewish music cover a
wide geographic area documenting various traditions around the world and are
situated within one or more disciplines, including musicology,
ethnomusicology, Judaic studies, linguistics, anthropology and history. In
addition, the emphasis in recent decades on interdisciplinary studies has
opened new opportunities and new challenges for scholars. This first seminar
series will thus focus on questions of the historical development of
methodology and discipline in the study of Jewish music.
December 17, 2004
Jewish music for Classical Guitar
Fred Fastow has a new book and CD called "Jewish Songs for Classical Guitar" which has 25 Sabbath, holiday and folk songs arranged in it. Various pieces are arranged for beginning, intermediate and advanced guitarists. Fred Fastow is a native of Brooklyn and grew up in New York. The book is available through Transcontinental music at www.etranscon.com.December 08, 2004
Gala Evening of Song and Grand Opera
A benefit performance for the Historic Stone Avenue Temple at the Leo Rich Theatre260 South Church Street, Tucson, AZ 85701
Wednesday Evening, 7pm, December 22, 2004
Cantor Marie Betcher, DCantor avid Montefiore, tenor, and Robert Paul Abelson, baritone formerly of the New York City Opera, with Alexander Tentser at the piano, singing an evening of opera and song of Verdi, Donizetti, Puccini and Mozart, and Bellni. Info at www.davidmontefiore.com. Tickets can be purchased at the Tuscon Convention Center Box Office.
November 11, 2004
Mimi Stern-Wolfes 2004-2005 series
DOWNTOWN MUSIC PRODUCTIONS, INCTHE SOUND OF NEW MUSIC
With Downtown Chamber & Opera Players
@ ST MARKS IN THE BOWERY (10th Street & 2nd Avenue)
ARMISTICE DAY REVISITED
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 14 @ 3:00 pm
Kurt Weill, (Four Walt Whitman Songs);
Katherine Hoover (Central American Songs): NY premiere
Timothy Brown (In Flanders Field) NY premiere
Peter Kelsh/Ilsa Gilbert: After Life
Joseph Kosma/Jacques Prevert: Barbara
Gary Geld/Udell: Ive Heard It All Before (Shenendoah)
Vocalists: Gayla Morgan, Coloratura; Emily Johnson, mezzo soprano; Kurt Alakulppi, tenor; Sean Barker, Baritone; Instrumentalists: Andrew Bolotowsky, flute;Chris Nappi, percussion; James Wilson, oboe Marshall Coid, violin; Daniel Barrett, cello; Mimi Stern-Wolfe piano
Suggested donation: $10
Information Dmpmimi@msn.com; (212 477 1594)
Website: www.downtownmusicproductions.org
Gerald Cohen music concerts
Saturday, November 13, 7:30 p.m.: Champaign, ILConcert: Music (mostly...) of Gerald Cohen
As part of a weekend as composer/cantor-in-residence at Sinai Temple in Champaign, IL, will present a concert of solo, choral, and chamber music including Preludes and Debka for trombone and string quartet, and selections from V'higad'ta L'vincha, Maariv for Weekdays, and the opera Sarah and Hagar. Other performers include Dennis Helmrich, piano; Jerold Siena, tenor; Elliot Chasanov, trombone; Allison Fromm Entriken, conductor.
*Sinai Temple, 3104 West Windsor Road, Champaign, Illinois
Call (217) 352-8140 for information
http://www.shalomcu.org/sinai/activities.html
Sunday, December 5, 4 p.m : Piscataway, NJ
Premiere of Lakol z'man/To everything a season
Commissioned in memory of Ronald Axelrad by the Cantabile Chamber Chorale, Rebecca Scott, conductor, and based on the well-known text from Ecclesiastes. Part of Cantabile's concert "With Harps and Horns Resounding."
Christ United Methodist Church, 485 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ
Call 732-560-7132, x2 for information
http://www.cantabilechamberchorale.org/
Wednesday through Sunday, December 15-19: Pittsburgh, PA
Performance of Adonai Ro'i by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
As part of their Holiday Concert, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Meyer, conductor, with the Children's Festival Chorus, Christine Jordanoff, director, will perform Cohen's setting of Psalm 23.
Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/pghsymph.nsf/concert+listings/2F487AD4FFB7990585256EDF0058E654?opendocument
Looking ahead (May 2005):
Performance of Act I of Sarah and Hagar
In May 2005, the first act of Cohen's opera, Sarah and Hagar, will be performed in a concert version, with Elizabeth Shammash, Ilana Davidson, and Christopheren Nomura in the principal roles. The scheduled performances are Sunday May 22 at Temple Shaaray Tefila in Manhattan, and Tuesday May 24 at Shaarei Tikvah Congregation in Scarsdale.
November 04, 2004
Varshavsky-Shapira Piano Duo
Varshavsky-Shapira Piano Duo from Jerusalem, Israel - winner of numerous prestigious international competitions (1-piano 4-hands and 2 pianos). Biography, repertoire, awards, sound samples and contact information. the official website: www.piano-4-hands.comOctober 21, 2004
Zun mit a regn (sun and rain) in Netherlands
"Zun mit a regn (sun and rain) - laughter through tears" is part and parcel of
Yiddish music. Jewish composers devoted a great deal of attention to it and
so did Shostakovich.
Jewish Music Projects Foundation presents works in this style by
Shostakovich (1908-1975) and his friends Weinberg (Vainberg) (1919-1996) and
Veniamin Basner (1925-1996) in a series of concerts in the Netherlands performed by Sovali (Sofie van Lier) - soprano
Boris Goldenblank or Alexej Pevzner - violin
Alexander Oratovski or Wladislaw Warenberg - cello
Sander Sittig - piano.
For more information, please call Sofie van Lier, tel. 020-6623675; or email
jmp@tiscalimail.nl
See more info with dates and times....
World War Two and the reign of terror in the Soviet Union had a deep impact
on the composers. They expressed themselves in their music. The music of the
persecuted Jewish people was their source of inspiration - an act of courage
in a period when open pronouncements could have fatal consequences. It was
often years before the works could be premiered. Now these extraordinary and
intense works will be performed in the Netherlands by an ensemble of
specialised musicians:
Sovali (Sofie van Lier) - soprano
Boris Goldenblank or Alexej Pevzner - violin
Alexander Oratovski or Wladislaw Warenberg - cello
Sander Sittig - piano
Concerts:
24 October 2004, 7:30, Enschede Synagogue. Tel. +31(54) 432 4507
6 February 2005, 2:30, Nijmegen Synagogue. Tel. +31(24) 345 2572
6 March 2005, 3:00, Delft Synagogue. Tel. +31(15) 256 3371
18 March 2005, 8:15, De Nieuwe Veste, Breda. Tel. +31 (76) 529 9600
10 April 2005, 2:30, A.A. Brediusstichting, Hernen Castle. Tel. +31(487) 531
387
4 May 2005, 9:00, Uilenburger Synagogue, Amsterdam. Tel. +31 (20) 662 3675
8 May 2005, 11:30, De Lawei, Drachten. Tel. +31 (512) 513 344
29 May 2005, 7:00 u. De Buitenplaats Museum, Eelde. Tel. +31 (50) 309 2072
The concerts are supported by the VSB Fund, the SNS Reaal Fund and the
M.A.O.C. Gravin van Bylandt Foundation.
For more information, please call Sofie van Lier, tel. 020-6623675; or email
jmp@tiscalimail.nl
Shalshelet 2004: Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music
Concert!
Saturday, November 13, 2004, 8:00 p.m.
Temple Shalom, Chevy Chase, MD
Featuring 15 New Compositions and workshops on Sunday and Much more!...Some of the finest new composers have been submitting compositions, and the results are in... Please visit -
http://www.shalshelet.org/english/Festival.html
Featuring 15 New Compositions
The Peace of Jerusalem by Emil Berkovits (Florida, USA)
Shalom Aleichem by Carol Boyd Leon (Virginia, USA)
Hashkiveinu by Steve Dropkin (Alabama, USA)
Sim Shalom by Mary Feinsinger (New York, USA)
Modim Anachnu Lach by Ariel Foigel and Hern�n Rog (Santiago, Chile)
VeHeishiv Lev by Sylvia F. Goldstein (Connecticut, USA)
El Adon by Terry S. Horowit (Maryland, USA)
Neshama Shenatata Bi by Terry S. Horowit (Maryland, USA)
El Adon by Shirona Kaufman (New York, USA)
Har'ini by Shirona Kaufman (New York, USA)
Shalom Aleichem by Jeff Marder (Nevada, USA)
Mipi Eil by Wendy Morrison (Maryland, USA)
Al Ken Nekaveh by Ken Richmond (New York, USA)
Yedid Nefesh by Rebecca Schwartz (Pennsylvania, USA)
Lekhu Neranena by Rabbi Gershom Sizomu (California, USA; Uganda)
Workshops
Sunday, November 14, 2004 1:30-5:00 p.m.
Temple Shalom, Chevy Chase, MD
A. Meet the Composers
What is involved in the birth of a new melody? How do composers choose a
text and craft a melody? (Or does the text choose them?) Meet the composers
featured in Saturday's concert, and learn their answers to these questions
and others about the composing process. (90 minutes)
* Avinu Shebashamayim, by Emil Berkovits
* Yevarekhekha, by Mary Feinsinger
* Shiviti, by Sylvia F. Goldstein
* Har'ini, by Shirona Kaufman
* Shalom Aleikhem, by Jeff Marder
* Tzur MiShelo, by Wendy Morrison
* Psalm 92 and Yigdal, by Ken Richmond
* Birkat HaNerot, by Rebecca Schwartz
B. Shivim Panim laTefilla
(Seventy Faces of Prayer)
Over the centuries, the much-loved texts Ashrei, El Adon, Hashkiveinu, and
Sim Shalom have inspired melodies by Jewish composers from around the world.
Listen to and compare different settings of these familiar texts by some
of Shalshelet's inaugural festival winners. (50 minutes)
* Ashrei, by Fred A. Blumenthal (Missouri, USA)
* Ashrei, by Keith G. Miller(California, USA)
* El Adon, by Terry S. Horowit
* El Adon, by Shirona Kaufman
* Hashkiveinu, by Steve Dropkin
* Hashkiveinu, by Evette Nan Katlin (New Jersey, USA)
* Hashkiveinu, by Ira Scott Levin (California, USA)
* Sim Shalom, by Mary Feinsinger
* Sim Shalom, by Lawrence Rush (New York, USA)
C. Music for Less Common Texts
Just as some Jewish texts have many asssociated melodies, other texts are
still waiting for composers to find them. Shalshelet has unearthed melodies
for some less commonly sung texts. Come listen to and learn a few. (50
minutes)
* Eli, Eli, Lamo Azovtanu, by Stephen DeCesare (Michigan, USA)
* VeHeishiv Lev, by Sylvia F. Goldstein
* Ilu Finu, by Terry S. Horowit
* Nakum Uvaninu, by Carol Boyd Leon
* Im Ein Anu Li Mi Li, by Wendy Morrison
Tickets are available from:
Temple Shalom
8401 Grubb Road
> Chevy Chase, MD 20815
Tel. 301-587-2273
Fax 301-588-9368
or online at www.shalshelet.org
Concert and workshops:
$30 in advance
$35 at the door
Concert only:
$20 in advance
$25 at the door
Children 16 and under admitted free
Workshops only:
$15 at the door
September 29, 2004
Music of Korngold, Brahms, Prokofiev
The 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts "Chamber Music at the Y" series, Tuseday Oct. 26 at 8pm. and Wed. Oct. 27 at 8pm.< /br> Tickets $35..< /br> Pianist Leon Fleisher joins violinists Jaime Laredo and Ida Kavafian and cellist Sharon Robins for Korngold's Suite, Op. 23 (1930) which was written for two violins, cello and piano-left hand. With the addition of Jennifer Koh on violin and Ida Kavafian switching to viola, they will perform Brahms Piano Quintet in fi mine. Alo is Profkofiev's Sonata in C major for two vilins by Laredo and Koh. < /br>
Korngold's career stretched from imperial Austria to the golden age of Hollywood. This is part of the Celebrate 350: Jewish Life in America.
July 25, 2004
ISRAELI MUSICIANS IN NEW YORK
Center for Jewish History Great nights in the Great Hall at 7:30 pm
WEDNESDAY, JULY 28 at 7:30 pm The Rafi Malkiel Quintet
Rafi Malkiel- Trombone, Itai Kriss- Flute, Jack Glottman- Piano, Noriko
Ueda- Bass, Dan Aran- Drums
TUESDAY, AUGUST 3 at 7:30 pm Gili Sharett and ensemble
Gili Sharett- Bassoon, Lawrence Zoernig- Cello, Arielle Levioff- Piano
This program will be featuring one premiere of a sonata for bassoon and
cello by Peter Winkler, Fantasy and Lullaby by the Jewish
American composer, Sheila Silver and Sonata by the Israeli composer Yehezkel
Braun. The concert will also feature works by Schumann and Mozart.
Center for Jewish History 15 W. 16 St.
BOX OFFICE: (PHONE)917.606.8200 - (FAX)917.606.8201
Email: boxoffice@cjh.org
Tickets are $8 and $4 for students
For more information, you can visit
http://www.cjh.org
May 18, 2004
PSANTERIN CD set
PSANTERIN is the first Israeli music anthology published on CDs (2003) by the Israel Composers League and the Israeli Music Center. The set has 9 CDs of Israeli Music from the 1920's through the end of the 20th century with 72 works for piano composed between 1923 and the end of the previous century.
The League website states: "The collection opens with works of first generation of composers in Israel: Joel Engel, Paul Ben-Haim, Menahem Avidom, Yehoyachin Stutchewsky and others. It continues with first generation composers of statehood (Mordechai Seter, Oeden Partos and others) going as far as the younger generation of today's composers (Yoram Meyuchas, Gil Shohat and others).
All works included (except one) have been studio-recorded. Each CD features one of the following pianists: Liora Ziv-Li, Allan Sternfield, Ora Rotem-Nelken, Herut Israeli, Tomer Lev, Michal Tal, Natasha Tadson, Yuval Admoni and Astrith Baltsan. (The last CD includes pianists Allon Goldstein and Allan Sternfield.)"
The Anthology can be purchased at the Israeli Music Center (IMC), 55 Begin Rd. Tel Aviv, Israel.
For Mail order please call or fax to: 972-(0)3-562 1282
Email: icl@zahav.net.il
Price for the complete 9 CD set is $95 (with additional $5 mailing charges).
Price for a single CD is $15 (with additional $3 mailing charges).
4th Open Workshop of MUSICNETWORK
Call for Proposal, Papers, Expositions
Integration of Music in Multimedia Applications
http://www.interactivemusi
cnetwork.org/events/Fourth_OpenWorkshop_2004/MUSICNETWORK-4th-Open-Works
hop-plan-v1-2.html
http://www.interactivemusicnetwork.org/
Read on for more information:
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
15th-16th September 2004
You are invited to participate at the Workshop and to contribute to the
sessions.
With the support of the European Commission, the MUSICNETWORK project
has
been created to explore the applications and integration of interactive
multimedia technologies for Music, enabling inter- and
trans-disciplinary
collaborations and networking, bridging many important sectors,
including
cultural, commercial, industrial, research and academic. End users are
discovering the multimedia experience, and thus, traditional music
models
are going to be overcome and replaced by their integration with
multimedia,
audiovisual and cross media. Thus the aim is to put together industry
actors and innovative technology providers to help the music industry to
overcome the present problems with the innovation.
The theme of the 4th Open Workshop is the Integration of Music in
Multimedia applications. Currently many new music-related applications
are
strongly impacting and attracting the market. Most of them will become
more
and more widespread in a short time due to users demand. Among most
addressed sectors the one presenting more notable form of integration
between music and multimedia there are:
music education (notation tools integrating multimedia,
educational paradigms, tools, distance learning, mobile learning, etc.);
music management in libraries (modeling, navigation, metadata,
content description, etc., MPEG-7),
entertainment (animation, synchronisation, etc., SMIL );
music and multimedia music distribution and protection
(watermarking, fingerprint, MPEG-21);
valorization of cultural heritage (modeling, restring, etc.);
electronic consumer applications: piano keyboards with
symbolic
music representation and audiovisual capabilities, electronic lecterns,
i-TV;
mobile applications for education and entertainment (cellular
phones, PDA, tablet PC, etc.).
In the current Internet and Multimedia age other applications are
strongly
attracting market attention and most of them will become soon widespread
in
short time. The integration of symbolic music representation in MPEG
could
completely satisfy users requirements for properly handling such issue
into tools, allowing to integrate into a single model the powerful one
of
MPEG for multimedia, representation, coding and playback.
The integration of symbolic music representation with MPEG or other
multimedia standards will open the way for a large number of new
applications and markets related to the above applications. This
initiative
may increase the current market for symbolic music representation, which
is
mainly dedicated to sheet music production. It may also open the path to
creating very interesting new applications, and to increase the power
and
flexibility of those applications that already use both multimedia and
symbolic music representation. MPEG has relevant standards in this area
such as MPEG-4 for the audio visual objects, MPEG-7 for the description
of
audio visual content for archives, and MPEG-21 for the Digital Rights
Management and distribution of digital audiovisual.
At present, there is a lack of an integrated Music
Notation/Representation
standard with multimedia. The aim of this workshop is to make a further
step towards a proper standardizing of a Music Notation/Representation
Model. The MUSICNETWORK has worked very hard to create the conditions
for a
Call for Proposals/Technologies within MPEG with the aim of exploiting
the
MPEG framework for integrating Music Notation/Representation in several
innovative applications. As a results an MPEG Ad Hoc Group on Symbolic
Music Representation has been created, a large set of requirements and
innovative applications have been identified and a call for technology
can
be launched. All this material can be recovered from:
To this end, the next Open Workshop of the MUSICNETWORK will be mainly
focused on the integration of MUSIC and MULTIMEDIA in an effective CROSS
MEDIA. Several different formats and media may share the same
information
and grant navigation, synchronization and stable relationships
establishment.
The 4th Open Workshop will be organized around the following sections.
For
each section we are open to receive proposals and contributions:
Applications and Technical papers, chairs: Jerome Barthelemy
(IRCAM,
Submission of your proposal by 28th of May 2004
* To be sent at the corresponding chairs (see email addresses
above),
in MS-WORD or PDF formats
* To be also sent at
Jrme Barthlemy
jerome.barthelemy@ircam.fr
01 44 78 15 53
Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique
Vienna: The City of Jews & Music
The Leo Baeck Institute presents: The Cantors Concert
Sunday, June 13, 2004
3:00 PM
Featuring
Cantor Erik L. F. Contzius (Temple Israel of New Rochelle, NY)
Cantor Rebecca Garfein (Temple Rodeph Sholom, NYC)
Dr. Bruce Ruben (Temple Shaaray Tefila, NYC)
at Leo Back Institute
Auditorium, Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th St.
New York, NY
A concert of the music of Vienna and Germany:
Sulzer, Lewandowski, Kirschner, and Kellerman.
for Tickets: CJH Box Office: 917-606-8200
Admission: $10 LBI Members, $15 Non-Members
Cantor Erik L. F. Contzius
Temple Israel of New Rochelle
http://tinr.org/
http://rozhinke.org/
May 11, 2004
Meira Warshauers We Are Dreamers
Music by Meira Warshauer Featured in South Carolina Symphonic Chorale Concert on May 16 Meira Warshauers We Are Dreamers will be featured in a special concert, Home Sweet Carolina, presented by the South Carolina Symphonic Chorale, Timothy Koch, Music Director and Conductor, on Sunday, May 16, 2004, 3 PM at Washington Street Methodist Church, 1401 Washington Street, Columbia South Carolina. Tickets for the May 16 concert are $10, $8(seniors) and $6(children). For reservations and more concert information, please call the CCS at (803) 933-9060.This concert will present sacred and secular choral music of four of the Carolinas finest composers, including Dan Locklair of Winston-Salem, N.C., Ms. Warshauer of Columbia, S.C., Trevor Weston of Charleston, S.C. and Larry Shackley of Columbia. The South Carolina Symphonic Chorale, formerly the Columbia Choral Society, is a nonprofit organization that performs a variety of concert material, from Broadway Favorites to the Brahms Requiem and their "Messiah" sing-a-long. Learn more about them at their website - http://www.geocities.com/columbiachoral/. Meira Warshauers We Are Dreamers, for SATB chorus, clarinet, percussion and piano, was commissioned in honor of the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel. The text is Psalm 126, whose theme is the return of exiles to Zion. This psalm, sung after festive meals on Sabbath and holidays, has sustained generations of Jews in exile. The work was commissioned by a consortium of Jewish choral ensembles led by Zamir Chorale of Boston, along with the Rottenberg Chorale of New York; Gratz College Choir of Pennsylvania; Zemer Chai of Washington, DC; and Kol Dodi of New Jersey. The melodies, from Yemen, Morocco, and Greece/Salonika were found at the National Sound Archives of the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, Israel. Ms. Warshauers 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. 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 and Transcontinental. Her latest Bracha Newsletter is online at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/march04/MW_nws_030904.htm. You can find much more about her at - http://home.sc.rr.com/meirawarshauer/ For more information about Meira Warshauer, please contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-797-9166 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.
May 06, 2004
TORONTO JEWISH FOLK CHOIRS 78TH SPRING CONCERT
Choir with BEYOND THE PALE, SUNDAY, MAY 16
The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir adds the infectious klezmer sounds of Beyond the Pale to its 78th annual spring concert Sunday, May 16, 3 p.m. at Lawrence Park Collegiate, Lawrence Ave. W., two blocks east of Avenue Road (limited free parking at the school).
Tickets, $22 ($18 seniors and students; children under 12 free; group rates on request), are available at the door, or in advance from Jewish bookstores, or by calling 416-489-7681. More information is at http://www.winchevskycentre.org/choir.html and...
Now in his second year as conductor, Alexander Veprinsky directs the Choir, soloists and Beyond the Pale in an afternoon of memorable melody. Soloists are soprano Miriam Eskin, tenor Mark Fox and bass Herman Rombouts. Pianist is Lina Zemelman.
Highlight is the choral ballade Benyomin der driter (Benjamin the Third) by Max Helfman (1901-63), a musical adaptation of the classic novel by the Grandfather of Yiddish Literature, Mendele Moikher Sforim. Maestro Veprinsky has created an original orchestration for the musicians. TV personality Larry Solway will knit the sections together with narration in both English and Yiddish - his first venture into Yiddish narration.
Also on the program is an eclectic mix of songs on Jewish themes, in Yiddish, Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Russian and English.
The concert is dedicated to the memory of three people associated with the choir, who died in February 2004 Canadas music man Nicholas Goldschmidt, who showcased the Choir in three music festivals in recent years; long-time Toronto Symphony Orchestra cellist Robert Spergel, who arranged a spiritual the Choir performed in 2003; and Bella Shek, who was an ardent singer and executive member from her arrival in Canada in 1934 until into her 90s, and who died just short of her 103rd birthday.
Conductor Alexander Veprinsky graduated from the Mykola Lysenko Lviv State Conservatory in Ukraine in operatic and symphonic conducting. He is also a gifted pianist and arranger. Arriving in Canada in 1993, he became assistant conductor, and in 1995 musical director, of Torontos Shevchenko Ensemble and the driving force behind its School of Performing Arts, founded in 1996. He joined the Folk Choir in 2002.
The TJFC gratefully acknowledges the support of the Toronto Arts Council, the Ben and Hilda Katz Foundation, the Miransky Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, and Brina Harris
May 02, 2004
Kabala by Matthew Fields
Turning elements from "Chad Gadya" interleaved with Rosh Hashanah themes in a trombone brass quartet canonic segment is only one of the many interesting twists of the compositions of Matthew H. Fields recording Kabala. Fields has several 'classical' music pieces all with extremely unusual uses of Jewish thematic content. The above description comes from "Call of the Shofar" (1992) which is set for tenor trombones, and bass trombone. And I'll bet you've never heard a carillon performing the Sh'ma as the base tune (cantus firmus) of a toccata. "A carillon is a frame of beams and girder to which 23 or more bells are bolted" ...so it's something like playing a xylophone and organ at the same time, only bells ringing...of course that's not the end... Then there's Kabala (1993) which is an intriguing composition for clarinet, viola and piano, and a mood piece I liked a lot for it's mystery and lyrical qualities. This is all available on MMC 2087 Recording http://www.mmcrecordings.com/detail.asp?id=87. To learn more about Matthew Field, visit the composer's website: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~fields/complist.html This is all pretty good music and especially for those who are fans of new compositions that's not too dissonant or pointillistic, but has strong interest, with an eye on beauty of sound, you will defintiely enjoy this composer's music.May 01, 2004
Gili Sharett at Carnegie Hall
Israeli born bassoonist Gili Sharett will be performing a recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue in NYC, on Sunday, May 9, 2004, at 5:30 pm. The program will be featuring three premieres, Sonata by the Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun, winner of the Israel prize, another premiers by the young Israeli composer and pianist Noam Sivan, who recently had the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra play his symphony and a Lullaby by the Jewish American composer, Sheila Silver. Tickets are $20 eachApril 30, 2004
Legacy of Spirit in Boston
Daniel S. Gil presents The Legacy of Spirit Concert & Presentation
featuring Conductor Gilbert Trout at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall.
Sunday, June 6 2:45 PM (2:00 PM doors).
U.S.$15.00-U.S.$36.00.
http://www.legacyofspirit.org/
Featuring Conductor Gilbert Trout and a chamber orchestra, which includes musicians from the Boston Pops and Boston Lyric Opera. This concert features the lost sacred music of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Judaism's Chasidic movement and traditional music from the Baal Shem Tov's hometown of Mezbuz; recovered and orchestrated by local composer Daniel S. Gil.
April 28, 2004
MUSIC OF OUR TIME
A Concert at the Center for Jewish History,
15 West 16th Street,
New York, NY 10011
Sunday, May 2 at 3 PM
Music by American Jewish Composers:
Bernstein, Bloch, Cohen, Copland, Gershwin, Goodman, Kraft and Zur
Featuring:
Ruth Laredo, piano
Adrienne Cooper, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Rutkowski, clarinet
Lisa Albrecht, trombone
Dan Zhu, violin
Florence String Quartet
Mimi Stern-Wolfe, piano
$8; $4 for students, seniors, ASJM & AJHS members
Reservations required
Box Office:
Phone 917.606.8200
Fax 917.606.8201
boxoffice@cjh.org
Program
Leo Kraft's New Songs from Old (fantasy for clarinet)
Jacob Goodman's Three Yiddish Songs (mezzo and piano)
Menachem Zur's Prelude for Solo Violin
Gerald Cohen's Preludes and Debka (trombone and string quartet)
Ernest Bloch's String Quartet no. 2
Bernstein's Touches, 8 Variations and Coda
Gershwin's Three Preludes for Piano, no. 1
Copland's Blues No. 3 (piano)
Elzear (Zez) Confrey's Kitten on the Keys
March 22, 2004
PITTSBURGH JEWISH MUSIC FESTIVAL
The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, a new annual
concert series devoted to Jewish-themed classical
music, will debut this spring. The festival is founded by
cellist Aron Zelkowicz and will feature musicians of the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and guests. This
year's theme is "A Vanished World", an exploration of
Jewish culture in Eastern Europe at the beginning of
the twentieth century, and consists of three programs:
1.Monday, April 19, 2004 8pm
2. Tuesday, April 27, 2004 8pm
3. Wednesday, May 5 2004 8pm
For more info...
1.Monday, April 19, 2004 8pm
Levy Hall, Rodef Shalom Congregation
4905 Fifth Ave.
VOCAL CONCERT: "An Evening of Jewish Song"
with Mimi Lerner. mezzo-soprano and Aron Zelkowicz,
cello. Hebrew liturgical works by Ben Steinberg,
Yiddish art songs by Lazar Weiner, Yiddish folk songs,
the song cycle "We Are Children Just the Same" after
poetry by boys in Terezin by Srul Irving Glick, and a set
of cello pieces by Israeli composer Joachim
Stutschewsky.
2. Tuesday, April 27, 2004 8pm
Katz Theatre, JCC of Pittsburgh
5738 Forbes Ave.
ORCHESTRA CONCERT: "Klezmer Concertos"
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra resident conductor
Lucas Richman conducts a chamber orchestra
comprised of PSO and Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra
members in two of his own works, "Kol Nidre" and
"Overture for Israel" in addition to the N.American
premiere of Srul Irving Glick's clarinet concerto"The
Klezmer's Wedding" and the world premiere of an
instrumental suite from Hans Krasa's "Brundibar". Also
"The Fiddle" by Elliot Finkel (with text by Sholom
Aleichem) and "Self-Portrait with Gebirtig" by Joel
Hoffman.
3. Wednesday, May 5 2004 8pm
CHAMBER CONCERT: "Chamber Music from the Old
World" PSO members perform a virtuosic selection of
klezmer-inspired works for flute, clarinet, piano, harp
and strings by Golijov, Glick, Pittsburgh composer
David Stock, Hoffman, and Schiff.
Tickets and more info. available at ProArts (412)394-
3353 or www.proartstickets.org
March 21, 2004
Jerusalem Lyric Trio performs Denburg World Premiere
The Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles presents The Jerusalem Lyric Trio
in their World Premiere performance of Moshe Denburg�s �In the End of Days�,
(B�Aharit Hayamim). This piece was made possible by a grant from the Canada
Council for the Arts.
WHEN: Thursday, March 25, 2004
7:30 PM
WHERE:Valley Beth Shalom, 15739 Ventura Boulevard,
Encino, CA 91436
www.vbs.org
Tickets $20. Call (818) 788-6000.
More info...
ABOUT THE JERUSALEM LYRIC TRIO
Musicians Amalia Ishak (Soprano), Wendy Eisler-Kashy (Flute) and Allan
Sternfield (Piano), form a unique Israeli ensemble that highlights the
religious and cultural heritage of the Jewish people. Since 1995, they have
represented Israel through imaginative, dramatic programs worldwide.
ABOUT JMCLA
The Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles (JMCLA) was founded in 1982 to
create new opportunities for the performance of Jewish music, to encourage
the composition of new Jewish music, to bring Jewish music to new audiences,
and to educate those composers who wish to enhance their knowledge to write
authentic new Jewish music. JMCLA is a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational
organization. For more information please visit: http://www.jmcla.org
March 11, 2004
Jascha Nemtsov Presents Jewish Composers
'ACROSS BOUNDARIES'
"AU-DELA DES FRONTIERES"
Rcital-confrence de JASCHA NEMTSOV
Salle des Abeilles, 2 rue de l'Athne, Genve
Dimanche 14 mars 17h
Rservations: amj@club-association.ch ou tel 022 734 71 93
Au programme:
Arthur Louri (1892-1966): Valse
Juliusz Wolfsohn (1880-1944): Deux paraphrases d'aprs d'anciennes mlodies juives
Alexander Krejn (1883-1951): 3 pices tires de la Suite "Jdische Tnze"
Joseph Achron (1886-1943): Variations symphoniques sur thme juif 'El Yivneh Hagalil'
Alexander Weprik (1899-1958): Sonate n2
Joachim Stutschewsky (1891-1982): Vier jdische Tanzstcke
Arthur Louri (1892-1966): Nocturne, Gigue
Entre: 28 Frs / AVS, AI, tudiants, chomeurs: 18 Frs
Rduction complmentaie de 5 Frs pour membres AMJ
Rservations: amj@club-association.ch ou tel 022 734 71 93
Gili Sharett at Carnegie Hall
Gili Sharett will perform a concert at Carnegie Hall on Sunday May 9 at 5:30 pm. in the Weill Auditorium. Sharett is a bassoon player, and is premiering three pieces by contemporary Jewish composers: Sheila Silver, Yehezkel Braun and Noam Sivan. For this and other great concerts, see the Carnegie Hall website: http://www.carnegiehall.org/intro.jsp More about the concert...
Sheila Silver's Lullaby for Bassoon is inspired by the true account of a Southern woman slave's escape. Having been hidden away from her children for 7 years, the night before she was to be shipped to the north, she met with her daughter and held her in her arms all night and sang to her. This image inspired the Lullaby.February 26, 2004
"Ketubah" at the Houston Ballet
The San Francisco-based choreographer, Julia Adam, has created a ballet entitled "Ketubah" for the Houston Ballet which will have its world premiere tonight, February 26th at the Wortham Center in Houston. For more info...
Included are a mikvah scene and a joyous wedding celebration. The music is performed by "The Best Little Klezmer Band in Texas", led by violinist/vocalist Marcia Sterling. Isabelle Ganz is featured vocalist for a Russian song during the Mikvah scene. Performances are February 26, 28, 29 and March 5,6, & 7.
http://www.ci.houston.tx.us/cef/wortham/boxoffice.htm
February 25, 2004
MILKEN ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN JEWISH MUSIC NEW CD RELEASES
New Releases from Naxos: HERMAN BERLINSKI'S AVODAT SHABBAT (CD #8.559443) andMARVIN DAVID LEVY'S MASADA (CD #8.559427)
==================================================
HERMAN BERLINSKI'S AVODAT SHABBAT (CD #8.559443)
"I don't think I can write a piece of music, no matter what I do and what I
will try, that does not have the stamp of my Jewish existence," said Herman
Berlinski during the recording session for his masterpiece AVODAT SHABBAT,
one of only three complete Sabbath services ever written for soloists,
chorus, and large orchestra. The eighty-nine-year-old Berlinski returned to
his native Germany to attend the world-premiere recording of this major
20th-century sacred work, which he created during the course of many years
in America. For more information, go to
http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf?cdid=14
MARVIN DAVID LEVY (CD #8.559427)
The legendary defense of the desert fortress Masada by a small band of
Jewish Zealots against a massive Roman army inspires awe nearly 2,000 years
after the historical occurrence. Marvin David Levy's dramatic retelling of
the Masada story, originally written for the great operatic tenor and cantor
Richard Tucker, here receives its world-premiere recording. Also recorded by
the Milken Archive for the first time is Levy's haunting CANTO DE LOS
MARRANOS, a dramatic scene for soprano (in four languages: English, Ladino,
Hebrew, and Latin) that reveals the passions and conflicts of the
15th-century Spanish Jews who outwardly converted to Christianity while
secretly practicing their Jewish beliefs "under penalty of death." For more
information, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf?cdid=13
January 07, 2004
Anni Eisler-Lehmann Stiftung Foundation
Anni Eisler-Lehmann Stiftung (Foundation) in Mainz Germany at: http://www.anni-eisler-lehmann-stiftung.de Scholarships for Jewish musicians...The Anni Eisler-Lehmann Stiftung site is in German, English and French. The Stiftung Foundation was founded by Anni-Eisler-Lehmann who was born in Mainz, studied to be a singer but had her career taken away by the Nazis. She returned to Germany after the war a rebuilt her family's fortune but was never able to rebuild her own career. At the end of her life, with the help of friends, she founded the Anni-Eisler-Lehmann Stiftung. The foundation's primary goal is that of awarding scholarships to young Jewish students of vocal and instrumental music who wish to study in Mainz, Germany. Contact at the address below or address requests for application information to info-ael@a-e-l-stiftung.de