Yaffa Yarkoni: A Voice for Peace; Gave Voice to Israeli Pride; Supported National Morale for Half Century

Yaffa Yarkoni, (December 24,1925-Jan 1, 2012). Born in Giv' atayim, Israel. Yarkoni, as many of her generation, was the child of immigrants from the Caucuses. She was the daughter of Malka Alhassof and Avraham Abramov, the middle daughter of three children. Each parent had migrated early in the 20th century. Avraham Abramov, a fabric and carpet dealer, met Malka in Tel Aviv and married her there. Later, he left his family and moved to South Africa. Meanwhile, Malka was left to raise the children. She owned Tslil coffee house in Givatayim (Givat Rambam). All three young children (including Yaffa's siblings Binyamin, Tikva) proved to have musical talent in singing, dancing and playing musical instruments. They started off in a teenage group Basmati. Yaffa attended Gertrude Kraus Dance School and from there succeeded in landing a place with the dance troupe of the Palestine Opera Company. In 1944, she married a young solider, Yosef Gustin, who was in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army. He was stationed in Italy and killed just before the end of the World War II. Yaffa was not yet 20 years old.

Yaffa developed a successful singing career in the new State of Israel, starting off singing songs of the Palmach while in the Army's Givati Brigade. She was a radio operator during Israel's War of Independence. She started singing for large groups at that time, appearing in the army choral troupe and continued to bolster the nation's morale through many of the tough wars for the next fifty years and became known as "the Singer of the Wars," a designation she didn't like. In 1948, she married Shaike Yarkoni and had three children, Orit, Tamar and Ruth.

After her first album was a hit, she started recording songs for the troups with Hed Artzi, a new record label in Israel. Such memorable tunes as "Bab el Wad" were sung worldwide. In 1967, Yarkoni was chosen to sing "Jerusalem of Gold" in front of the Western Wall after Israel recaptured the city. She traveled throughout the world singing Israel's new Hebrew songs to sell-out audiences in world venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall, the Paris Olympia and London's Palladium. In 1998, she was awarded the Israel Prize during the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the State. In 2000, a CD, "Rumania, Rumania" of Yarkoni singing Yiddish songs (with arrangements by Glenn Osser) was produced by Simon Rutberg of Hatikvah music. She felt it was OK to sing in languages, even if she didn't understand them (she didn't know Yiddish, but she did learn French, Spanish and even enough to sing in Japanese). She also recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, the jazz artist. In 2002, after a controversial radio interview in which she opposed some political actions of the Israeli government, Yarkoni received hate mail and had her life threatened. Many of her concerts were canceled and there was a boycott called of her music. Later, such harsh attitudes by many softened, due to her great service for so many decades to the country. In 2005, nearing age 80, she sang again for the 57th anniversary of Israel, but also agreed to appear at the Vox Club for gay fans in Tel Aviv. Her show of support by agreeing to sing there was very well received among that community. Yarkoni died Jan. 1, 2012, age 86, from a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease. She was honored in Israel with music on radio, TV and in national salutes by politicians and citizens.



See: Washington Post Obit at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/yaffa-yarkoni-israeli-wartime-singer-who-criticized-military-dies-at-86/2012/01/01/gIQAN2t8TP_story.html

See: Jerusalem Post Obit at:
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=251767

Posted by jmwc at 03:49 PM

Adrienne Cooper: A Yiddish Light Goes Out

Adrienne Cooper Khane-freyde bas beyle-buni z"l.

Adrienne Cooper (1946-2011), a leading light of Yiddish song died early last night, December 25, of cancer in Roosevelt Hospital in NYC. She was surrounded by her family and friends. Ms. Cooper, one of the world's top figures of Yiddish music, brought Yiddish folk and theater music to modern audiences. She was a valued performer, not only for her impressive vocal qualities, but her masterful interpretive style and tremendous stage presence. She presented Yiddish song in such an expressive way that any audience could understand and appreciate it. Along with her feminist social conscience, she was a mentor and leader to thousands of musicians and students. She helped co-found "Klezkamp" and spread Yiddish culture throughout the world. She is survived by a daughter, Sara Gordon, and partner Marilyn Lerner, two brothers and her mother.

Adrienne Cooper was born September 1, 1946 in Oakland, California. Her grandmother made homemade wax discs of Yiddish folk and liturgical music, and her grandfather was a baritone ba'al t'fillah. Adrienne's mother was an opera and musical theater performer, and a prominent concert performer of Yiddish and Hebrew music. Cooper began studying voice in her late teens with her mother's teacher, Mary Groom Jones. She continued studying classical art song with Mina Lief at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. She then attended Hebrew University and received a BA in history. Later she continued voice training with Jennie Tourel and Simon Sargon.

After returning to the United States, she studied at the University of Chicago, where she received an MA in history. She first performed Yiddish songs in graduate school.

In 1975, Cooper moved to New York and was coached by Lazar Weiner, the prominent composer of Yiddish art song. She also studied with Yiddish poet and lyricist Wolf Younin. After taking summer courses in Yiddish language, she became an assistant director at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. In 1985, she co-founded with Henry Sapoznik the multi-generational Yiddish Folk Arts Program, popularly known as "Klezkamp". Klezkamp successfully trains upcoming music professionals and others interested in folk education.

Cooper concertized internationally throughout Europe in such diverse places as Russian, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, along with Israel, Canada and throughout the US. She performed and recorded widely with top klezmer bands such as the Klezmatics, Kapelye, and Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, Frank London’s Klezmer Brass AllStars, and performers such as David Krakauer, Zalmen Mlotek, and DJ So-Called. In recent years, she also participated and recorded in all women's groups such as Mikveh and a group calling themselves "The Three Yiddish Divas". Her success was also due to the exploration and expansion to new repertoire, as in her CD "Ghetto Tango" and her participation in a newly written theater piece, the critically acclaimed “The Memoir of Gluckl of Hameln (with Jenny Romaine and Frank London/Great Small Works Theater).” She also starred in “Esn: Songs from the Kitchen” with Frank London and Lorin Sklamberg.

One of her strengths was bringing intellectual as well as musical force to bear in her amazing collaborations in a wide variety of styles. With Marilyn Lerner, she composed new music to Yiddish poetry, "Shake My Heart Like a Copper Bell: On the Poetry of Anna Margolin" and collaborated with other women composers writing new Jewish music, such as Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman. Other works included the 1989 Partisans of Vilna and her 1995 solo debut cassette with Joyce Rosenzweig, Dreaming in Yiddish which was reviewed onThe KlezmerShack . Her most recent solo CD was Enchanted: A New Generation of Yiddishsong (Golden Horn Records, 2010). She is featured on film (most recently in the documentaries “Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner” and in “Making Trouble! Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women”) and her recent writings on Yiddish culture have appeared in Lilith Magazine and the journal Bridges.

Cooper served as Executive Officer for Cultural Programs and Jewish Journeys at The Workmen’s Circle for over a decade, where she produced programs in Jewish literacy and culture, following on the groundwork that was started by her as a leader in the revival of Yiddish culture.

Cooper received many awards and honors in her lifetime, including commissions from University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center and UCLA, The Jewish Museum, United Synagogue, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National and New York State Endowments on the Arts, the New York Council for the Humanities, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. She is the recipient of Klez Canada’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Yiddish Arts and Culture. In December 2010 she also received the Marshall T Meyer Risk-Taker Award by the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice society.

On a personal note, I had the deep pleasure of studying with Adrienne Cooper as a student in her Yiddish song classes in the Zumer-progam by YIVO Max Weinreich Center for Advanced Jewish Studies held at Columbia in 2001. I also saw her perform many, many times in different venues, and each time was something very special. She made Yiddish song come alive, be an immediate presence, and have meaning in the modern world. We will miss this interpreter of dreams. Mit Liebshaft un sholem.

Amy Winehouse Obit

Guardian Obit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/23/amy-winehouse-obituary

Yaakov Lemmer at Leiby Kletzky Memorial

It's times like these that our traditional music truly expresses the feelings that are so hard to express. So tremendously moving. In this clip, Yaakov Lemmer leads 1000 mourners, men and women, gathered in Borough Park, Wednesday night July 20 2011, crying and singing at a memorial service that was held at Congregation Anshe Sfard on 14th Ave. in Brooklyn, NY.



The event was coordinated by the founders of Cantors world. The five cantors were Yaakov Lemmer, Netanel Hershtik, Ben Zion Miller, Yaakov Rosenfeld, Shimmy Miller

More About Jack

Jack Gottlieb Remembered
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/04/jack-gottlieb-obituary#history-link-box

"His book Working with Bernstein was published only last year, but is by far the most valuable Bernstein memoir and will surely remain so, both for its candour and its musical insights."

Shifra Lerer z"l

The Yiddish actress Shifra Lerer died at 95. The New York Times ran this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/arts/shifra-lerer-actress-in-yiddish-theater-dies-at-95.html?_r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss. This editor was fortunate enough to sit in on a special class lecture she gave at Columbia University 10 years ago. She was terrific in person as well as on the stage.

Jack Gottlieb z"l

The American Society for Jewish Music sends out this sad announcement about the passing of Jack Gottlieb.
Dear Members and Friends:
It is with sadness that I share with you the news of Jack Gottlieb's passing.

A prolific composer, especially of sacred songs and choral music for the synagogue, Jack worked actively on behalf of Jewish music and served as President of the ASJM for a number of years. Also a scholar and noted author, his acclaimed books, Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood, and, most recently, his memoire Working with Bernstein, about his years as assistant to Leonard Bernstein, received rave reviews. A biography of Jack Gottlieb's distinguished career is appended below.

As Jack wished for no public funeral, those in the New York area wishing to mark his passing are invited to attend the services at Congregation Emanu-El on March 11 and 12, 2011, which will be devoted to his music. At the Friday evening service on March 11th the sermon that Jack had been asked to deliver on Jewish music will be read. There are plans for a memorial concert marking his first yarhzeit.
May his memory be a blessing.
Michael Leavitt
President

Jack Gottlieb, born October 12, 1930, New Rochelle, NY, and lived in New York City. Gottlieb received his BA from Queens College, NY, an MFA from Brandeis University and a DMA from the University of Illinois. Synagogue composer Max Helfman, his first mentor, was the one to inspire him to write sacred music. Dr. Gottlieb also studied with Aaron Copland and Boris Blacher at the Berkshire Music Center. From 1958 to 1966, he was Leonard Bernstein’s assistant at the New York Philharmonic. In 1967 his sacred service, Love Songs for Sabbath, was given at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN, probably the first time a full-length synagogue service was ever heard under Catholic auspices (excerpts recorded on Naxos 8.599433 with six other choral works). From 1973-77 he was the first full-time professor of music at the School of Sacred Music, Hebrew Union College. In 1977 he joined the [now called] Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc., as publications director, and currently served as consultant for the Bernstein estate.

He had just been named by the New York Philharmonic as the Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence for the 2010-2011 season. Among artists who have performed his works are Bernstein, members of the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; singers Jennie Tourel, Adele Addison, Lee Venora and John Reardon; the Gregg Smith Singers, and many other choral groups; and actresses Tovah Feldshuh and Felicia Montealegre. He is past president of the American Society for Jewish Music and had received numerous awards, most recently from the Zamir Choral Foundation “in recognition of his lifetime contributions to Jewish music.” Among these compositions is his Songs of Godlove, a two-volume set of 51 solos and duets (Transcontinental Music).

Some of his secular works are inspired by iconic movies. Among them are Downtown Blues for Uptown Halls, songs; The Silent Flickers, for 4-hand piano; Rick’s Place, piano trio; Three Frankenstein Portraits for a cappella chorus; and an opera, The Listener’s Guide to Old-Time Movies. His books, both critically acclaimed, are the recent Working with Bernstein, a memoir (Amadeus Press, 2010), and Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood (Library of Congress and SUNY Press, 2004) received rave reviews nationwide. For more information, visit www.jackgottlieb.com

Debbie Friedman z"l

It is truly with sadness that JMWC reports the loss of Debbie Friedman. Debbie Friedman's funeral will take place Tuesday January 11 at 11am at Temple Beth Sholom in Santa Ana, California. She died Sunday morning, January 9, 2011. Her music lightened the hearts and lifted the spirits of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, and brought so many Jews closer to God. I had the privilege of being Debbie's biographer for Encyclopedia Judaica. She was definitely one of the most, if not the most, spiritual person I've ever encountered, even in engaging in everyday conversation. Those that knew her or her music, will surely miss this tremendous musician and Jewish composer.

Attached is a link to a service that was held for her in New York at the Manhattan JCC. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/service-at-the-jcc

http://www.debbiefriedman.com/Home/Healing

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/01/10/2742484/a-song-for-debbie-friedman

Barry Serota Z”l

Barry Serota
Z”l

Barry Serota, a practicing attorney and executive director of the Institute for Jewish Sound Recording, died suddenly November 16, 2009 on a plane flight between New York and Madrid on the way to Israel.

Serota, widely known for his deep knowledge of Jewish music, had produced more than 100 recordings of Jewish sacred and secular music. Serota’s output at the Institute, based in Chicago, included choral, instrumental, folk and art music. Serota was especially known a promoter of chazzanut. Starting in 1969, he issued many esoteric Jewish music recordings under the imprint of Musique Internationale.

Serota, an advisor to the Milken Foundation, worked on their large project of the Library of American Jewish Music, the recordings which were published under the Naxos label. He was also involved in the Foundation’s oral-history project, for which he interviewed many of the leading figures in Jewish music.

Serota earned degrees at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, and received a law degree from De Paul University of Chicago. He lectured widely, including numerous professional and academic organizations such as the Cantorial Council of America, HUC (Hebrew Union College), TACI (Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute), and the Museum of the Diaspora.

Serota is being buried in Chicago. He leaves behind his widow Yvonne and children.

Cantor Susan Wehle in Crash near Buffalo, New York

CNN reported that one of the victims of Continental Airlines Flight 3407 that crashed in Buffalo last Thursday was Cantor Susan Wehle. Brooklyn native Cantor Wehle was a cantor at Temple Beth Am in Williamsville, New York since November of 2002. She had also sung as a cantorial soloist at Temple Sinai in Amherst, New York. The cantor received her Cantorial Smicha from Aleph – the Movement for Jewish Renewal. Additionally she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre and in Judaic Studies, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Acting. She performed with theatre companies in Buffalo, Chicago and New York City. Her parents were Holocaust survivors. Cantor Wehle was 55. She had released a CD called "Songs of Hope and Healing." Temple Beth Am synagogue has established at guest book for those who wish to remember the cantor. http://www.bethambuffalo.org/GuestBook.html

Judith Wachs of Voice of the Turtle Dies at 70

We are saddened to report that Judith Wachs, the founder of the Voice of the Turtle, the music group devoted to Sephardic music, died in Cambridge, MA on October 9, 2008 of cancer. Starting out first with just one music volume she found at Harvard, Judith painstakingly researched and recreated songs that told the stories of the exile and survival of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century. She interviewed elderly Sephardic people in Israel, and did research at the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem. Her Boston-based group of four, produced recordings such as Balkan Vistas--Spanish Dreams, From the Shores of the Golden Horn, The Sword of the Dove, Bridges of Song:Music of the Spanish Jews of Morocco, and Circle of Fire: A Hanukkah Concert Live! An obituary appeared in the Boston Globe. There is also an interview with Ms. Wachs at RootsWorld http://www.rootsworld.com/interview/vot.html

Jorge Liderman died in California

Jorge Liderman, a well-known composer, died at age 50 in California in February 3, 2008. Liderman, born in Argentina in 1957, went to Israel and received musical training at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. He came to the United States and studied at the University of Chicago. He worked at the music department of the University of California, Berkeley since 1989. Liderman became known as a composer of modern classical music, and also wrote many pieces on Jewish themes. A recording of of his composition of 46 Spanish songs "Aires de Sefarad" was recently reviewed by this author for the Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter. [Albany Records TROY829]. He had many works commissioned by major organizations such as the Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the London Sinfonetta.