Wild Peace: A Gala Concert for Israel's 60th

Wild Peace: A Gala Concert for Israel's 60th
Honoring Joyce Bohnen, Zamir alumna and former board chair
Sunday, June 1, 2008
8:00 pm
Sanders Theatre, Cambridge
Join Maestro Joshua Jacobson and the Zamir Chorale of Boston for a celebration of well-known works and hidden gems by Israel's greatest composers, including Yehezkel Braun's dramatic "Magash Ha-kesef," Naomi Shemer's mystical "Shirat Ha-asavim," Gil Aldema's joyous "Ashira Liydiyday," Moshe Wilensky's exuberant "Uri Tsiyon," and a rollicking arrangement of Marc Lavry's "Shir Ha-Emek." The evening culminates with the world premiere of Cantor Charles D. Osborne's stunning oratorio for chorus and orchestra, Like Wildflowers, Suddenly, based on the poem "Wild Peace," by Israeli poet Yehudah Amichai.
Tickets from $18; students, $10
Visit www.zamir.org
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001akelOBI-lzxlFM96wF4rRTlRdfDZu_54wnTFMxfzOMgF57OwGRGBelHxWL7dDzWflwypC9sWi8PSN-WKiLOkQug0Os27yaH-5xBGnqgizRk=]
or call 617-244-6333.

60 at 60

60 locations are participating in special celebrations for Israel's 60th anniversary. Most of the concerts are in May, and some in June. For full details, see the website. There's a lot of great activity and big celebrations throughout the country. If you haven't seen some of these top performers, this may be your chance. There are performers appealing to different generations, so the whole family can enjoy the music and celebrate Israel's founding 60 years ago.

http://www.60at60.org/

60th Anniversary of Israel in New York at Radio City

The official observation of the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel's 60th Anniversary in New York will take place at 8PM on Wednesday May 7th with a major musical gala at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The event will feature Reggae superstar Matisyahu, Paul Shaffer of the David Letterman Show, composer/performer and MacArthur Genius award winner John Zorn and top Israeli music artists Idan Raichel, Rami Kleinstein, David Broza and Habanot Nechama, with additional performers to be announced.

The historic cultural gathering will be the largest such celebration of its kind, and is supported by over 100 Jewish organizations including the UJA Federation of New York, Consulate General of Israel, Jewish Community Relations Council, Dor Chadash and other key groups representing a majority of the organized American Jewish community. The evening will begin with a brief memorial program with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Israeli Ambassadors Dan Gillerman and Asaf Sharif and other dignitaries.

General admission tickets are $36, $60, $120 and $180. VIP tickets are $360 for center orchestra or $1000 for front orchestra seats with program listing. VIP tickets include a private pre-concert dinner reception with the artists and post-concert party at Tavern on the Green. All net proceeds of the event will benefit three leading Israeli organizations helping children in need Ahava orphanage in the North, Gvanim in Sderot, and Beit Issie Shapiro in the center of Israel.

For tickets: http://www.60at60.org ; info@60at60.org or call 212-608-0555.

Yuval Ron Ensemble Embarks on Peace Tour

The Yuval Ron Ensemble is embarking on a concert tour for peace in November, centered around the International Music Festival in Jerusalem, plus a second conert in the Jewish-Arabic community center Beit Hagefen in Haifa. For more details read their letter...
Dear friends,
This is the time to register for the amazing exclusive peace mission tour we are taking on this coming November 2007. Space is limited! Itinerary, Terms and registration forms are at: http://www.yuvalronmusic.com/home.html?text/calendar.html~mainFrame Please read details below:

This is an extraordinary Tour the Yuval Ron Ensemble is embarking on, centering around a landmark concert for peace in the International Music Festival in Jerusalem plus a second concert in the Jewish- Arabic community center Beit Hagefen in Haifa. We have extended this concert tour into two weeks of explorations and exclusive cultural experiences in Israel plus meetings with local Peace Makers who work to bring Jewish and Arabic artists together.

I would like to invite you to come along to this adventure! From the Bedouin tribes in the Negev desert, the sacred sites in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, to an exclusive ritual on Mt. Masada and to the historic Kabalistic center of Safed - THIS TRIP WILL BE AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE TIME!

The tour is organized by one of the leading tour company in Israel (Target Conferences Ltd) and the guide, Ze'ev Back is one of the best and most experienced tour guides in the country.

For more info and to see the day to day activities, Please go to: http://www.yuvalronmusic.com/home.html?text/calendar.html~mainFrame

Please let me know if you would like to join us or if you have any questions about the trip.

SPACE IS LIMITED and there is a lot of interest already! So please, please, please, if you are interested please email us to receive the registration form ASAP and to reserve the space for this Exclusive Tour to the Holy Land - A Peace Mission to Israel with The Yuval Ron Ensemble.

Best wishes for Health, Peace and prosperity.

Yuval Ron

www.yuvalronmusic.com
www.myspace.com/yuvalronensemble
www.myspace.com/yuvalron

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.

Follow your Drummer. Habrera Hativeet in Boston

Habrera Hativeet, featuring Shlomo Bar co-presented by The Boston Jewish Film Festival and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA)
If you've never seen this group, you owe yourself a treat next week. **Highly recommended** by JMWC.
So follow the drummer this summer on Sunday, June 18, 1PM, Remis Auditorium

Habrera Hativeet fuses together artists with authentic Sephardic, African, Indian and Middle Eastern roots, time-honored songs from Andalusian Spain, Yemen, and Morocco, Hasidic chants from Eastern Europe, and contemporary Israeli poetry. Their music bridges time, cultures, and mindsets in Israel and beyond. The group’s website can be found at www.shlomobar.com

Tickets are $20 for MFA and Boston Jewish Film Festival members, students, and seniors; $25 general admission. Front-of-house tickets (guaranteed general admission seating within the first three rows) are $25 discounted and $30 general admission.

To order tickets, contact the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Remis Auditorium Box Office at 617-369-3306 or visit www.mfa.org/concerts

Shoshana Damari dies in Tel Aviv

Shoshana Damari, with a completely distinctive voice, and a career as one of Israel's favorite singers, died on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at a hospital in Israel from pneumonia. She was 83. Damari was called by Haaretz newspaper as the "Queen of Israeli Song" , others the "diva of popular song". Damari was born in Yemen, in the city of Damar, migrating with her family to Israel in 1924. She was a child prodigy and sang at many functions in her community. As a young teenager, she went to seek her career in Tel Aviv, landing a job at the Li-La-Lo Theater and becoming a permanent cast member. One of her solo numbers was by Shlomo Wilenski, called "Kalaniot" (Anemones) and it became her signature song. The hospital reported that this song was played for her minutes before her death with friends and family singing along. Damari's songs became identified with the Israel War of Independence of 1948. She was widely honored and beloved in Israel, winning the Israel Prize in 1988. This musician will be buried with a state funeral. Read Israel newspapers about it: http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/682676.html And the Jewish Agency biography: http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Eye+on+Israel/Gallery+of+People+%28Biographies%29/Damari+Shoshana.htm

Her death marks yet another of the founding generation's passing in recent years along with Uzi Hitman (Chitman), Naomi Shemer, and Ehud Manor.

Shalom Eitan has a biography of his escape from the Holocaust and arrival in Israel. While in a British detention camp on Cyprus, around 1947-48, Shoshana Damari came to sing. Here's a small, but poignant quote from that article that gives a glimpse of the power Damari had the meaning of her work to that generation:

"Life in the camp began to fill with meaning. The course, my job, the cultural life which was expanding, soccer, volleyball and the like. Even a Yiddish theatre came into existence. We were in a detainment camp but it was more like a vacation camp. There were parties and weddings. Children were born and there was no worry about supporting them. Everything, except for the inability to reach Israel, was OK One of the most moving events was the performance of Shoshana Damari. Every detainee in the summer camp gathered on the soccer field where a stage had been built in the centre. On the stage stood a beautiful, dark-skinned woman like those seen only rarely in Europe. Very tanned with wonderful black hair; but most of all, the voice. Her songs electrified us and even though her accompanist did not manage to work the accordion, which apparently had been damaged during its travels. She hypnotised us with her songs and gave a complex to anyone who thought he or she knew how to speak Hebrew.

I was educated speaking Hebrew with Sephardic style and even so, it was the first time I heard authentic Hebrew. I didn't even know there were Ashkenasi Jews and Sephardic Jews until I reached Bucharest. There I learned that the Sephardic Jews were the elite of the people and they descended directly from King David's kingdom and after the destruction of the second temple, were deported or compelled by circumstances to leave their home land to the Diaspora then lived a flourishing period in Spain until the expulsion by and during the Spanish Inquisition.

In Cyprus, I met Jews from Morocco and Shoshana Damari exemplified the Jews in Israel. Only later did I learn that she was from Yemen. The melodies of her songs accompanied me for years to come and even though I have heard her sing tens, if not hundreds of times, her songs still remind me of that unforgettable experience in Cyprus. In the television show, "This Is Your Life," I heard her say that the most emotional event in her long, rich career was "the performance she gave, the songs she sang before the refugees in Cyprus." How very true! " To read Eitan's full article go to the JewishGen website: http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/lipkany/lipkany.html#TOC and click on "Survive and Tell"

Shoshana Damari in Cyprus at British Camp of Jewish Detainees circa 1947.

Photo credit: Shalom Eitan from JewishGen.

Israeli pop culture blog

It's not all music but there's a lot of tidbits onIsraeli and American pop culture through the Sha blog at Shaister.com archives. http://www.shaister.com/archives/cat_friday_miscellaneous_pop_culture_entries.html

Jazz with Piano in the Center-- Anat Fort Trio

Friday, January 20th at 10pm
The Opera House in Tel Aviv (aka Hamishkan le'omanuyot habama)
http://www.israel-opera.co.il/

Anat Fort, piano/Gary Wang-bass
Roland Schneider-drums
Jonatan Keren-violin
Yuval Messner-cello
The Contemporary Israeli quartet (Har'vi'ia HaIsreaelit Ha'achshavit)
Special guest-Ayelet Gottlieb-voice.

Ehud Manor Dies at 64

The great poet of Israel, Ehud Manor died on Monday, April 11 in Israel. Considered by many to be the living embodiment of the Israeli experience and emotion, the country is in a state of shock at the loss. Those who want to read more about it can go to the Jerusalem Post or other Israeli newspapers online to see complete details. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113272264246

Melodia Women's Choir Features Yehezkel Braun

Melodia Women's Choir of NYC,/b> will delight New York audiences with three exciting and rarely-performed works by Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun in its upcoming concert, November Song. The three works by the highly-regarded composer from Tel Aviv are written to songs and ballads by H.N.Bialik, Israel�s first national poet and one of the country�s most revered and influential writers.
The concert will be presented on November 20, 2004 at 7:30PM, at St. Peter�s Church in Chelsea (346 W. 20th St., between 8th and 9th Avenues) in New York City.

Conducted by Cynthia Powell, the 24-member Melodia Women�s Choir will perform the three works in Hebrew. Yehezkel Braun wrote the works expressly for women�s voices. Rife with lyrical freshness, the Bialik ballads probe the passage of time in The Lovely Linden Tree, the wonders of natural mystery and the fears of aging in Neither Daylight Nor the Darkness, and the joy and burdens of love in With Window Opened Wide. Braun, a Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University, was born in Russia and emigrated to Israel in 1922. He has taught in England, France, the United States and Germany, and is considered one of Israel�s finest musical treasures.

In honor of Braun, Melodia has been specially invited to concertize November Song (which also includes classical repertoire by Sir Edward Elgar, Serge Rachmaninoff and Rebecca Clarke) at Temple Sinai in Tenafly at the Sabbath service on Friday, November 19. Melodia's conductor, Cynthia Powell, serves as Organist and Choirmaster of Temple Sinai in Tenafly

New York audiences can hear November Song in a public performance on Saturday November 20, 2004 at 7:30 p.m., at the newly restored St. Peter�s Church, a landmark site on 346 West 20th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan�s Chelsea neighborhood.

Tickets are $15 in advance; $20 at the door.
For ticket reservations, call 212-561-0167;
e-mail womenschoir@mindspring.com; or
visit http://womenschoir.home.mindspring.com.
Information about the Temple Sinai concert is also available on the website.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Cindy Cooper, 212-265-8997.