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Daphna Sadeh
Israeli bassist, composer. Co-Founder, Eve's Women (1997), an all female group of jazz, klezmer, and rock. Also founded Daphna Sadeh And The Voyagers,(2002), a contemporary world fusion music group based in London. Studied, Manhattan School of Music in New York. After graduation, she joined the East-West Ensemble in Israel for seven years. Performed in Israel with The Israel Orchestra, The Israel Northern Orchestra, The Israeli Opera Orchestra, and The Beer-Sheva Sinfonietta. Released the CD Out of Border in 2002, and the CD "Eve's Women" Sadeh has performed at numerous international festivals along with her work in her various ensembles. She currently resides in England. Sadeh's profile and list of works available from Rainlore website.
http://www.rainlore.demon.co.uk/Artists/DaphnaSadeh.html Her website describing her life, various ensembles includes photos and audio clips from her two CDs.
http://www.daphnasadeh.com
Dorothy Sarnoff
Born 1914, Brooklyn, N.Y. Broadway singer. Also sang in opera and on television. Graduated Cornell University, 1935. Known for her role in "The King and I" with Yul Brynner on Broadway. Founded "Speech Dynamics Inc., where she became a speech consultant to politicians and public personalities.
Her papers, ranging over 75 years, are held at Cornell University Library Rare Books and Manuscript Division, where a finding aid is available online. Information about Dorothy Sarnoff from the "Guide to the Dorothy Sarnoff Papers", Cornell University.
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM03147.html
Irene Scharrer
British. Pianist. Born, London, 2 Feb. 1888, Died London, 11 January, 1971. Ida and Tobias Scharrer's third child. She first studied with her mother, Ida. At the age of twelve she won a scholarship to study with Tobias Matthay at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At her first Royal Academy student concert in 1901, Scharrer played Chopin s Rondo in E flat Op. 16 & "with wonderful finish and very remarkable technical skill." Her Debut was 1904. According to Naxos music, Myra Hess was not a cousin, but she was someone with whom Irene played duos often, and with whom she gave her last public concert in 1958. Early in her career Scharrer toured widely, performing in Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia and the United States. After she married S. Gurney Lubbock in 1915, her family took precedence over her career and she cut her concert schedule. She largely played Romanic repertoire, and was known for her Chopin selections. "Her technical facility was shown to great effect in Chopin s études which she performed a great deal." Scharrer made her first recordings in 1909 for the Gramophone Company. Around 1929 Scharrer switched to Columbia, re-recording a fair amount of the repertoire she had recorded for HMV, making her last discs in the mid-1930s. Most of the Columbias are extremely impressive and in far better sound than the early HMV discs. Albums featuring this artist are available. WOMEN AT THE PIANO - AN ANTHOLOGY OF HISTORIC PERFORMANCES, Vol. 2 (1926-1950) 8.111121 University of Maryland Archive has some online clips of her performing: Here is Arabesque No. 2 in G Major by Claude Debussy.
http://www.lib.umd.edu/PAL/IPAM/scharrer.mp3
Bella Schaechter-Gottesman
Née Beyle Schaechter. Poet, artist and songwriter. Born 7 August 1920 in Vienna. Her mother, Lifshe Gottesman, and father, Benjamin Schaechter, moved to Cernauti, Romania (also called Czernowitz, now part of the Ukraine) when Beyle was eighteen months old. Beyle attended general school in Romanian, also learning French and Latin, spoke Yiddish at home, and German or Ukrainian around town. She studied violin briefly, but her fascination lay in art, singing and Yiddish poetry. Home was full of song as her mother knew a large folk song repertoire and had a wonderful voice. Years later, Lifshe Schaechter-Widman recorded songs in the United States, and wrote a memoir,Durkhgelebt a Velt: Zikhroynes (1973).
In 1938, Beyle's two-year study at the Vienna art school was cut short when Hitler invaded Austria. Using her Romanian passport, she returned to her family in Cernauti, only to spend the war years in her hometown under dire circumstances. In February 1941, she married Jonas Gottesman, a physician. They wound up in Cernauti ghetto with the other Jews by October that year, but her husband arranged authorization for them to remain in the area, and thus they survived the war.
Between 1945-1946 around 22,000 Jews left Cernauti. Beyle's family went to Bucharest. Beyle however, was able to secure a passport to live in Vienna, being a native of that city. A few years later, in 1951, she left to settle in New York with her husband and daughter.
Schaechter-Gottesman started her theatrical literary work as an involved parent of her children Taube, Hyam and Itzik, writing for the Scholem Aleichem Yiddish School in New York. She wrote several musical plays and puppet shows for children, including Alts Tsulib a Latke,"Everything for a Latke" and Dreidl Kop She edited a children s magazine Kinder Zhurnal from 1972-1982, and founded and edited the magazine by children, Enge Benge.
Her first book of poetry was Mir Forn in 1963, followed by Stezhkes Tsvishn Moyern: Lider Footpaths Amidst Stonewalls: Poems (1972) and Sharey Lider Sunrise Poetry (1980). Another book of poetry, Lider(1995) was published in both English and Yiddish. Perpl Shlengt zikh der veg: Lider Winding Purple Road (2002) also featured her drawings.
Her outpouring of musical song started to see publication in the 1990s, with Zumerteg: Tsvantsik Zinglider Summer Days: Twenty Songs (1990) and Fli mayn flishlang! Kinderlider mit Musik Fly My Kite! (1999); CDs of her songs also appeared: Zumerteg New Yiddish Songs (1991) and Af di Gasn Fun Shtot On the Streets of the City (2003). Her bilingual children's book Mume blume di Makhsheyfe Aunt Bluma, the Witch (2000) has been translated into multiple languages. She performed her Yiddish folk songs onBay Mayn Mames Shtible At My Mother's House (2004).
Schaechter-Gottesman was awarded the People s Hall of Fame Award from the Museum of the City of New York (1998) and the Osher Tshushinsky Award from the Congress for Jewish Culture (1994). She received a National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellowship in 2005.
With the rekindled interest in Yiddish culture and klezmer music during the 1970s and 1980s, Gottesman s large repertory and accessibility led many leading practitioners of Yiddish song to her door. She also participated in popular cultural festivals and workshops such as the Yiddish Folk Arts Workshop ("Klezkamp"), Buffalo on the Roof, Klezkanada, Ashkenaz Festival, and Weimar Klezmerwochen, spreading the knowledge of her music. Her original songs inspired such prominent Yiddish singers as Theodore Bikel, Adrienne Cooper, Michael Alpert, Lorin Sklamberg, Sharon Bernstein and Theresa Tova, who were eager to find new material that reflected post-war Jewish life in America.
A version of this article will appear in Encyclopedia Judaica in 2006.
Beth Schafer
Beth Schafer is an award-winning songwriter who blends first-class musicianship with a little teaching and a little theatre into a high-impact transformative experience. Beth has been blazing a trail in Contemporary Jewish music for 10 years. She has been a guitarist since the age of 6, and attended the University of Miami School of Music on a jazz scholarship. Her music pays attention to the universal themes that not only define Judaism, but many other faiths as well.
http://www.bethschafer.com/
Basya Schecter
Pharoah's Daughter, is a band featuring Basya Schechter, Tracey Love-Wright, Martha Colby, Jen Gilleran, Jarrod Cagwin, Tomer Tzur, and Benoir. Their music is exotic and innovative, utlizing elements of Sephardic, Middle Eastern and modern Western sounds. The website features press reviews of concerts and their cd's. The links lead to places to purchase the cds. The new music blends Jewish traditions with world beat music. He new CD Haran, released in 2007, combines "hasidic psychedelic rock" with complex Middle Eastern instrumentation. Her other albums include Queen's Dominion(2004), Exile(2000), Out of the Reeds (2000) and Daddy's Pockets (1999).
http://www.pharaohsdaughter.com/
Benjie Ellen Schiller
Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller is both the first woman to be a full time faculty member at the School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and a composer of sacred music. Born in New York on April 14, 1958 to Miriam and Nathan Schiller, Cantor Schiller studied voice and composition, and received a B. M. in Theory and Composition at Boston University in 1980. She continued graduate studies there in voice and choral conducting, and shortly thereafter, married Rabbi Lester Bronstein in June, 1981.
She attended the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College in New York and was invested in 1987. Her Master Thesis composition was "Life Song Cycle." Cantor Schiller also became a full time faculty member and taught courses in cantillation, basic nusach (prayer modes) and the in-depth study of repertoire for Shabbat. Her liturgical compositions "V'yeetayu" was featured on the American Public Radio program Days of Awe: Music for the Jewish High Holy Days in 1991. "Zeh Dodi" (1991), "May You Live to See Your World Fulfilled" (1997) and "One Generation Goes" (1997), were published by Transcontinental Music.
Cantor Schiller has also received many commissions from synagogues, organizations and institutions including "Mi Shebeirach" (1988), "Shabbat Evening Service" (1991), "Hannah" (1995) performed in Merkin Hall, New York, "L'chaim U'l'shalom" (1998) and "B'or'cha Nireh Or"(1999).
Cantor Schiller performs and teaches widely including co-director of the philanthropic choral group, "Beged Kefet." She has appeared as a classical soprano soloist with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the John Oliver Chorale, the Boston Zamir Chorale and Sine Nomine of New York. She was also a fellow of Synagogue 2000 in California. She has appeared at the North American Jewish Choral Festival, at congregations around the northeastern United States and with the Zimmerman Institute (1997).
Recordings include two with "Beged Kefet" with songs such as "Ki B'Simcha Tetzeyu/Go Out in Joy" (1991), musical cassettes to accompany the Reconstructionist Kol Haneshamah home prayerbook, Shirim Uv'rachot, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations's Come let Us Welcome the Sabbath. She is a featured cantor in Yamim Noraim, (1995) recording of High Holy Day music published by Transcontinental, and also appeared in A Taste of Eternity with the Western Wind musical ensemble.
Cantor Schiller lectures on Jewish music including topics on spirituality, music as a path to healing, stylistics of congregational singing, and trends of modern synagogue music, medieval Jewish music, and the role of music in the Jewish life cycle. She has written on the topic of the development of Reform music and on the future of Jewish sacred music including "The hymnal as an index of musical change in Reform synagogues" in Sacred Sound and Social Change: Liturgical Music in Jewish and Christian Experience,(1992).
Cantor Schiller serves as the high holy day cantor at Bet Am Shalom Synagogue of White Plains, New York where her husband is Rabbi. They have three children, Liba, Yoni, and Avi.
By J. Pinnolis. 03/2000.
Martha Haftel Schlamme
Martha Haftel was born in Vienna, 25 September 1922. Died, October 6, 1985, Jamestown, NY. Singer, pianist and actress. Martha was the only daughter of Meier and Gisa Braten Haftel, who were Orthodox Jews. Her father owned a kosher restaurant in Vienna, where Martha spent her formative years before escaping Nazis in 1938. She escaped through France to England, where her father became a butler and her mother a cook. She attended a Jewish school in England. Despite being refugees, her parents were considered "enemy aliens" and so were interned by the English government on the Isle of Man . Martha chose to join her parents there. At the camp she met Engel Lund, a singer from Iceland, who inspired her to become an international singer. He recommended her to good music teachers, and after WWII, she studied with Ferdinand Rauter (piano) and Emmy Heim (voice) in London. Schlamme came to the US in 1948, shortly after marrying Hans Schlamme, which marriage ended in annulment in the 1960s.
She began her concert career in the Catskills singing in Hebrew and Yiddish. She continued vocal studies with Marinka Gurewich and Hans Heinz and later at Aspen where she studied with Jennie Tourel, who introduced her to Olga Ryss who became her coach. She began singing at good venues including college campuses, concert halls and nightclubs, such as Town Hall and the Village Gate in NY and Wilshire-Ebell Theater in LA. She was able to perform on tv and radio. She was so popular that by 1960, she had performed at over a thousand concerts in the US.
Shlamme was known as a supreme interpreter of folk song and concertized and recorded in twelve languages, saying to The Christian Science Monitor in 1959 "The real test of a multilinguist is whether he can make his audience feel a part of the country about which he is singing" and commenting again in Musical America in 1963, "The meaning-yes, that's the most important thing!" Schlamme enthusiastically sang Jewish songs throughout her career. On the Vanguard, Folkways, Columbia and MGM labels she produced fifteen albums including "Martha Schlamme Sings Israeli Folk Songs"(1953); "Martha Schlamme Sings Folk Songs of Many Lands" (1958); "Martha Schlamme Sings Jewish Folks Songs"(1957, and vol. 2 1959).
She recorded "German Folk Songs" on the Folkways label with Pete Seeger. As an early performer of Kurt Weill songs, her roles brought her considerable attention and fame. She performed Weill's songs in Edinburgh at a venue called the Howff. This show grew and eventually came to New York, playing for months. For over twenty years she included Weill's music in her programs and produced the recordings "The World of Kurt Weill in Song" (1962) and "A Kurt Weill Cabaret" (1963). In 1965, she starred in a production of Weill's "Mahoganny" at the Strafford Festival in Ontario and two years later sang at Ravinia Music Festival in "A Kurt Weill Cabaret" with Alvin Epstein. In 1985, she appeared with Epstein at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem.
Schlamme sang on Broadway, playing the role of Golde in "Fiddler on the Roof" in 1968, and that same year appearing in "A Month of Sundays", and "Solitaire, Double Solitaire." Later she had a one-woman show, "A Woman Without a Man is..." Schlamme became a teacher of song and acting at the the Circle in the Square Theater School in New York and H.B. Studio.
Schlamme was close to activists in leftist politics and later married Mark Lane, a Democratic politician. Despite her early personal experiences, Ms. Schlamme wrote in a Music Journal article in May, 1963, "I have always felt that people are very much alike all over the world; by that I mean the human experience is very similar.... Languages differ, customs differ, and the variations are fascinating but not incomprehensible. And the same holds true for the music of different peoples."
Martha Schlamme suffered a stroke onstage at the Chautaugqua in front of an audience of three thousand. She died at age sixty in nearby Jamestown, NY.
Today, her Yiddish and Weill recordings still circulate as reformatted CDs.
Emma Adatto Schlesinger
American. Born Constantinople, Turkey. grew up in Seattle in a bilingual Ladino and English household. Developed an interest in the scholarly study of Ladino culture, including linguistics and music. Wrote a master thesis in 1935 at Univ. of Washington on A study of the Linguistic Characteristics of Seattle Sefardi Folklore. She incorporated an audio section which was field work and recorded Sephardic women from the Seattle community, including Spanish canticas and romansas, Turkish songs and Ladino songs. The University of Washington had the recordings transferred to better archival storage in 1981.
Ruth Schonthal
Born June 27, 1924, Hamburg, Germany. Composer and pianist. Studied in Berlin where she was the "youngest student ever accepted at the Stern Conservatory." In 1935 her family began fleeing the Nazis, going first to Stockholm, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and then Mexico City where she studied composition with Manuel M. Ponce. In 1946, Hindemith met her and invited her to study at Yale, where she earned a BA in 1950. She worked in several part-time jobs to support herself both by playing and teaching. In 1950s, moved to New York, composing a large number of works over 30 years including operas, orchestra pieces, lieder and chamber music and quite a few piano works. Her works include several with Jewish themes such as A Bird Flew Over Jerusalem. A biography, Ruth Schonthal - Ein Werdegang im Exil (Ruth Schonthal, a Development in Exile) is slated for translation into English. Ruth Schonthal is currently composition faculty of New York University and SUNY, Purchase and lives in New Rochelle, NY. A brief biography appears on the Sigma Alpha Iota website:
A
German translation of that essay appears online and also has a nice photo.
An online interview from IAWM Journal, February 1994, pp. 5-8, with Ruth Schonthal appears online.
Giora Schuster
NOTE: Giora Schuster was incorrectly identified in the International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, by Aaron I. Cohen, (New York: RR Bowker Co: 1981) p. 416, as female. Actually, Schuster is a male Israeli, born in Germany in 1915, He had an outpouring of music published in the 1960s, mostly chamber music. The JMWC is indepted to Dr. Yosef Goldenberg of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance for pointing out the error in the encyclopedia for us.
Rebecca Wolpert Schwartz
American. Singer songwriter, guitarist, music teacher working in the Philadelphia area. Rebecca has published a book of songs called "Rebecca Songs" and has produced three CDs "Only Time Can Tell", The Light of Shabbat" and Ahavah Rabah". She won an award at the 2004 Shashelet competition for her compositions "Y'did Nefesh" and "Birkat Haneirot." She leads music in Jewish camps, performs for Jewish temples, workshops, and simchas. She also sings in local Philadelphia coffeehouses and nightclubs. Her website includes photos, a bio, a calendar, news and section with music clips where you can hear her rich and pleasant voice.
http://www.rebeccasongs.com/home.html
Roz Schwartz
Dancing in the Wind is the Website for Roz Schwarz, a Jewish musician living in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She performs and composes music in a variety of settings. She is currently Canadian Regional Representative for the Children's Music Network. She is also a photographer. The website includes lyrics and songsheets for many songs of her music.
http://www.dancinginthewind.ca/entrance.htm
Betty Segal
Singer. Wife of Israel Segal, director of the Ghetto theater in Vilna, who had four revue programs between mid-1942-Sept. 1943 in the ghetto primarily of new Yiddish songs. If you have more biographical information about this person, please contact JMWC. Thanks.
Elaine Serling
American. Born in Detroit, Michigan. Wayne State University, in nursing. An experienced educator and singer/songwriter. In 2001, she won the "Jewish Woman in the Arts" award for contributions as a songwriter, performer and Jewish educator. She has made an impact not only in the Midwest, giving concerts to children and adults for over thirty years, but has published a song book, Sing and Celebrate: Jewish Songs for All Occasions (Danza Publications, 1987) with a CD available. Elaine's songs teach about Jewish life and themes in an upbeat, yet non-insipid fashion, with varied arrangements. While most of the songs are in English, she mixes Hebrew and English in holiday and other songs. Her second CD is "Join the Circle" (Danza, 2002). Elaine is an ASCAP and published songwriter. Elaine Serling lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Elaine teaches nursery school, creative dance and confirmation classes. She has served as a choir director in the Detroit area. A Summer, 2000 article in Jewish Woman Magazine (published by Jewish Women International) stated: "With a flare for today's musical tastes, Serling engages her audience with her warmth, energy, and imagination. By combining original Jewish songs with traditional Jewish music, she pleases every musical palate." Serling has a very pleasant, strong voice, and her CD's appeal to young children, from toddler's to early elementary years. Her website contains clips for listening from her CDs. Elaine can be contacted by email: elaine@elainesterling.com
www.elaineserling.com
Dalit Segal
Israeli. Horn player. Born, Rehovot, Israel, 1970. Studied with Jacob Kling and Yaacov Mishori. Member of Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Won America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships. Serve in education corp in Israeli army. Joined Jerusalem Symphony and then Israel Philharmonic 1992. Attended Julliard and studied with Ranier DeIntinis. Currently assistant principal hornist with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ronit Seter
Israeli musicologist specializing in serious music, Israeli art music, Japanese music and Jewish women's music. She attended Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel and completed both a BA, musicology and philosophy; and MA in musicology. Currently completing the PhD at Cornell University with her dissertation on Israeli art music. Contributor to, Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia,(forthcoming); the New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001); and Asian Composers (2002).
Shulamith Shapira
Pianist. Israeli. Graduated from the State Conservatory of Music in Bucharest at age sixteen. Studied under
Florica Musicescu, whose list of students included Dino Lipatti and others. Works as chamber musician and recitalist worldwide. Recorded for the Israeli National Radio.
Judith Shatin
American. composer. Recent CD of orchestral music called Piping the Earth, just released on Capstone Records (CPS 8727). Her Shapirit, Yefehfiah (Beautiful Dragonfly) was performed in January, 2005 by the New York Treble Singers in New York. Currently, Judith Shatin is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Music and Director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia. She founded the VCCM in 1988. Prof. Shatin received a AB from Douglass College, 1971, a MM from Julliard in 1974 and the MFA 1976 and PhD from Princeton in 1979. She started teaching at the University of Virginia in 1979 and has been there since. Her awards, commissions and prizes are numerous, spanning over 25 years of accomplishment and are listed on her website at the University of Virginia. They include, among so many others, a residency at the MacDowell Colony, several fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, and a nomination by American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters. She serves on the Advisory Board, International Alliance for Women in Music, since 1999, Board of Directors, American Composers Alliance since 1994 and was President, American Women Composers, Inc. 1989-1993. Dr. Shatin has written numerous scores with Jewish themes. Among them are:
Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin, a three-part Hanukah Round, published by
Colla Voce Music (http://www.collavoce.com/site/index.lasso) , and
recorded on A Hanukah Celebration, on the Miliken Series, on Naxos 8.559410.
Adonai Ro'i, an a capella SATB setting, in Hebrew, of Psalm 23,
published by Warner Bros (http://www.music44.com/X/), and recorded by
the New York Concert Singers conducted by Judith Clurman, on Divine Grandeur, New World Records, 80504-2.
Chai Variations, a set of 18 Variations for piano on Eliahu Ha Navi,
available from Wendigo Music
Elijah's Chariot, for string quartet and electronics, commissioned
and toured by Kronos Quartet, and available from MMB Music (http://www.mmbmusic.com/)
and;
Songs of War and Peace (SATB + Piano), a setting of four Israeli poems on the subject of war and peace, in translation by outstanding American poets.
Photos used by permission. Photo Credit Peter Schaaf.
http://www.judithshatin.com/
Kay Kaufman Shelemay
Professor of Music at Harvard University, Dr. Shelemay has written on many topics of Jewish interest including Let Jasmine Rain Down (1998)
and Music, Ritual, and Falasha History" (1986) and A Song of Longing: an Ethiopian Journey (1991). She was also editor for Studies in Jewish Musical Traditions: Insights from the
Harvard Collection of Judaica Sound Recordings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library, 2001. A website at Harvard tells of the project: Student Series. Dr. Shelemay received her B.M., M.A., and Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Michigan. She is a past president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Shelemay has written a textbook called Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World (2001).
Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer was born in Israel on Kvuzat Kinneret in 1931. She is a prolific composer and singer. One of her most famous songs is "Jerusalem of Gold".
brief Naomi Shemer bio
Naomi Shemer bio
songs arranged for choir
PDF file of Jerusalem of Gold in English
Naomi Shemer album-2 CD set from Hed Arzi
Paulina Shepherd(Brighton, UK)
Composer, singer, pianist and the leading choral conductor of Yiddish song in the
Former USSR. She has performed and taught internationally. Her specially developed
choral teaching methods are based on instrumental ornamentation and Jewish modes.
Performs with her own a capella ensemble Ashkenazim and works with the Sound & Light
Cinematic Duo, who play live accompaniment to rare black and white silent Jewish
films. Polina's music is performed by choirs and soloists all over the world.Contact: E-mail: polina_shepherd@yahoo.co.uk , tel.
+44-1273-553737
http://www.polinashepherd.co.uk/
Shirona
"Shirona, a native New Yorker, was raised in Israel in a musical, cultured evironment, and started performing at an early age. After serving in the
Israeli army she returned to the United States and starred in the nationally acclaimed Israeli-American Musical Review "On Silver Wings". After taking time off to marry and raise a family, Shirona returned to the Jewish Music scene with a newfound interest in New Age and Jewish Spirituality. She began composing original melodies to the ancient texts of the Bible and Prayer Book, in Hebrew, using multi-cultural musical influences, such as Celtic, Eastern European, Middle Eastern and American." She currently resides with her family in Rye, NY. He CD Judaic Love Songs received wide ranging acclaim and received reviews in The Journal of Synagogue Music - Fall 2001 and Jewish Week, August 10, 2001.
Sarah Shoham
Israeli composer of choral works.
Wrote "The Little Prince" premiered in January, 2002.
Jerusalem Post article on events of music in Sde Boker.
Dinah Shore
American. Born March 1, 1917 as Frances Rose Shore. Died February 24, 1994, Beverly Hills, California. Blues and popular music singer, and star on television. Grew up in Winchester, Tennessee as the only Jewish child. Attended Vanderbilt University, graduating 1938. Went into radio in New York and became known as "Dinah", from her audition song. In 1939, started The Dinah Shore Show series on radio. She sang mostly the blues and imitated the African-American singers of the day. During WWII, she married George Montgomery and started in movies, but her main career became television with the hugely popular The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1951-1956) and The Dinah Shore Show (1956-1962) followed by a talk-show called Dinah's Place (1970-1974) and other TV series during the next twenty years.
Stephanie Shore
American. Cantor. songwriter. Born into a musical family with mother Rita Shore and father Ira Shore. BA Florida International University. Recorded CDs "My Soul" and "Quiet Time". Has a Purim Spiel website where various spiels can be viewed, listened to or purchased. Served as a cantor for Hillel in Miami, Florida. Currently cantor at Congregation B'nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida. Member of the Guild of Temple Musicians, the Cantor's Association of Florida and the Women's Cantors Network. Her website has a unique cantorial teaching area with torah portions (broken down into a triennial cycle) and various prayers and blessings. Learners can listen to these various items online. Her website features a biography, a list of recordings and a link to the Congregation B'nai Israel website.
http://www.stephanieshore.com/
Eve Sicular
American. Percussionist. Leads Isle of Klezbos. Received BA in Russian History & Literature, Harvard University. Performer of klezmer, rock, R and B, Cajun/zydeco, samba, swing and Mid-Eastern music. Founded Metropolitan Klezmer, 1994. Won OutMusic Award as Outstanding Producer, 2002 for Mosaic Persuasion. Taught percussion and Yiddish film history at KlezCamp, Buffalo on the Roof, and Mame-Loshn.
Betty Silberman
Betty Silberman, a dynamic Yiddish and cabaret singer. Has several recent CD's and has sung with many klezmer groups.
Beverly Sills
Opera Star and philanthropist, Chairperson of Lincoln Center, and for many years, director of New York City Opera. Debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1953 and New York City opera in 1955. Joined the board of the Metropolitan Opera in 1991 where she had debuted in 1975. Beverly Sills, affectionately known to millions of fans as "Bubbles", is a classical high coloratura soprano with an incredible range, flexibility and poise. She sang a repertoire of over 70 operas. She is the recipient of the French Order of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the New York City Handel Medallion, and a Kennedy Center Honor among her many achievements and honors. Born in Brooklyn, NY, as Belle Miriam Silverman May 25, 1929.
Article/Interview with Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills
Governor's Commission Honoring Beverly Sills/New York State Council on the Arts webpage
Julie Silver
American. Singer. Songwriter. Julie Silver was raised in Newton, Massachusetts. By 18, she was leading song sessions throughout the Reform Jewish movement, and playing coffeehouses in and around Boston. She was graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and was selected by her senior class to deliver the commencement address and sing an original song at Graduation in May, 1988. After college, Silver landed a job as an on-air personality at WMJX, Magic 106.7 in Boston, a contemporary music radio station. She started as a weekend DJ, and quickly became the host of Bedtime Magic, a top show of the Boston radio market. It was a natural fit for Silver who combined comic timing with a silky-smooth speaking voice.
Silver moved to Santa Monica in June 1994 to continue writing and recording. By the time she released her first album, Together, Silver stepped into the national spotlight. Julie released 4 highly successful albums of original Jewish music between 1992 and 2000 and has sold more than 60,000 CDs.
Her Jewish songs have become tightly woven into the fabric of American Judaism. They are current "standards" in worship, camp, and academic settings in the Reform movement. In 2002, she released her folk rock CD, Notes from Montana, featuring a duet with the Academy Award winning actress Helen Hunt. Julie's children's CD, For Love to Grow, was recorded as a tribute to her beloved childhood music teacher, the Boston-based composer, Aline Shader, and released in Spring 2005. The album won a Parents' Choice Blue Ribbon Recommended work award. It's Chanukah Time, Julie's Barnes & Noble CD, was recorded in 2007, and was the first Jewish holiday CD produced exclusively for the bookstore chain.
Silver is currently focused on mentoring up-and-coming singer-songwriters and making the Jewish experience more meaningful. I'm really trying to enhance the way people experience Judaism by adding my own take on our sacred texts Silver says. I also want people who have historically been marginalized to feel included in the Jewish community or in any community. Our tradition compels us to express ourselves& our joys, our hopes, our faith and our fears.
In May 2008, Julie made her acting debut in the feature film, Then She Found Me, in a scene opposite Bette Midler. During the summer of 2008, Julie traveled to Brazil to perform several concerts for the World Conference on Progressive Judaism.
Silver lives with her partner Mary Connelly, the Executive Producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show and their rather hilarious daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, in Southern California.
http://www.juliesilver.com
Sheila Silver
American composer, largely of classical chamber and large scale music and film scores. Wrote the opera The Thief of Love. Winner of several prestigious composition prizes including the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Composer Award and the ISCM National Composers Competition. Professor of Music at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Sheila Silver has written numerous works with Jewish themes, including her recent Piano Concerto and Song of Sarah. Shirat Sarah will be out on the
Milken Archive of Jewish Music (Naxos) the summer of 2004. She has written in a wide range of mediums: from solo instrumental works to large orchestral works; from opera to feature film scores. Her musical language is a unique synthesis of the tonal and atonal worlds, coupled with a rhythmic complexity which is both masterful and compelling. Again and again, audiences and critics praise her music as "powerful and emotionally charged, accessible, and masterfully conceived." The website has a list of works, recordings and reviews.
http://www.hummingbirdfilms.com/sheilasilver/index.html
Faye-Ellen Silverman
American. composer, clarinet, viola, piano. b. New York, NY, B.A., Barnard College; M.A., Harvard; D.M.A., Columbia, in music composition. Her teachers have included Otto Luening, William Sydeman, Leon Kirchner, Lukas Foss, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Jack Beeson. Her compositions are published by Seesaw
Music Corp. and recorded on New World Records and Crystal
Records. She has received awards from UNESCO, the National
League of American Pen Women, ASCAP, and the Rockefeller
Foundation, and (paid) commissions from Philip A. DeSimone,
Thomas Matta, the IWBC for Junction, the Monarch Brass Quintet,
the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Fromm Foundation,
NEA, Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, Con Spirito, the
Greater Lansing Symphony, and the Chamber Music Society of
Baltimore. She has taught at Columbia, various branches of City
University, Goucher College, the Peabody Institute of The Johns
Hopkins University, and the Aspen Music Festival, and is
currently on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music and
Eugene Lang College. She is also a Founding Member of Music
Under Construction, a Board Member of the International
Women’s Brass Conference and the author of the 20th-century
section of the Schirmer History of Music. Her webpage includes reviews, list of compositions, and a shop. Web page link:
http://www.amc.net/member/Faye_Silverman/home.html
Carly Simon
American folk singer-songwriter and pop star. Born June 25, 1945. Rose to extraordinary fame during the 1960s and 1970s superstardom. An entire lengthy personal biography is outlined on the official Carly Simon website, including listings of her songbooks, recordings, and online store.
http://www.carlysimon.com/
Peri Smilow
American singer. Peri Smilow is singer/guitarist who performs synagogue and other religious music in a contemporary setting. She has also taken part in the Freedom Music Project, which features freedom music from the traditions of both Jews and Blacks. Peri Smilow, located in Boston, tries to repair relations between the two groups by putting activity and actions together. "Sign of the Dove Music" is Peri's record label. To buy direct from Peri's label: P.O. Box 3083 Cambridge MA. 02238
http://www.perismilow.com/
Johanna Spector
Born in Lativa in April 23, 1915? 1920?. Ethnomusicologist. Came to the US in 1947 after losing her husband, parents and brother in the Holocaust. Earned a doctorate from HUC and master from Columbia University.Taught for two years at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Taught at Jewish Theological Seminary, starting in 1954 and continued there for over thirty years. Founded Department of Ethnomusicology in 1962 which specialized in the music of the Jews of Yemen, India and the Middle East. Collected an archive of thousands of recordings of Jews from very varied backgrounds. She produced numerous article and documentary films on the musics from these Jewish communities.
Sunita Staneslow
Israeli harpist. Graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. Teaches and performs throughout Israel and frequently tours and gives master classes in US. She was named one of the top ten Jewish instrumentalists by Moment Magazine and she was a recipient of a 1998 McKnight Foundation Fellowship in recognition of her work with Jewish music. She was the principal harpist for the Jerusalem Symphony during the 1986-87 season and currently performs with the Ra anana Symphonette in Israel, the Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival, and the Tel Aviv Irish Festival. In addition to solo performances Sunita also performs in a harp duo with harpist Tali Glaser who is the second harpist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Her other duo is with renowned clarinetist Mati. Sunita is a frequent guest with the Celtic Band, Celtic Connection . She has released 12 CDs on several labels of Jewish, Celtic and classical music and published twelve books of her arrangements of music for the harp. Sunita was a founding member of the innovative VIDA ensemble, which performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In April of 2003, Sunita performed and taught at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. She teaches annually at the Island Mountain Arts summer harp camp in Wells, Canada. Sunita has also performed with the Minnesota Opera and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra.
http://www.sunitaharp.com/biography.html
Margot Stein
American. Born on June 25, 1961. Rabbi. Singer. Composer. Graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1983, and from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1997. Rabbi Margot Stein sings and composes with the musical groups MIRAJ and Shabbat Unplugged. Her first solo album, "Create out of Nothing", was produced in 1991. She wrote music and lyrics for an award-
winning musical play, Guarding the Garden, with book by David Schechter. Seen by over 20,000 people, this musical toured North American synagogues for 4 seasons. Margot produced a recording of the music from Guarding the Garden in 1993. With MIRAJ, she
has produced two albums of original Jewish music, "A Moon Note/Emunot" and "Counting Angels in the Wilderness." With Shabbat Unplugged, she served as producer for the recording of a CD to accompany "A Night of Questions: A Passover Haggadah" (Reconstructionist Press, 2000). At RC, she helped establish KOLOT: the Center for Jewish Women's and Gender Studies. She served as Director of Marketing and Communications for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation from 1999-2003 and has taught in the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School since 1999. She has three children, Aryeh, Sammy J and Raphael.
Anna Shternshis
Yiddish historian and musicologist. born in Moscow, Russia. In 1996, completed M.A. in Russian and Jewish History and Archives at the Russian State University of Humanities and Project Judaica. In 1997, received a Yiddish teaching diploma from the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies. D.Phil., Oxford, 2000. Currently, Assistant Professor of Yiddish and Yiddish Literature at the University of Toronto. Teaches various undergraduate levels of Yiddish language, literature, and culture . Specializes in Yiddish culture. Presented several papers on Jewish song, including: "Yiddish songs in the Soviet Union." Presentation at the conference "Modern Jewry and Arts", Philadelphia, 2001 (organized by the Centre for Advanced Judaic Studies);"Singing about Stalin: Yiddish folk songs in the Soviet Union; Trying to transform the tradition: Jewish identity in the Soviet Union in the 1930s." Series of lectures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 1999; "Yiddish Songs in the Soviet Union: the Reflection of Official Ideology in the Popular Culture of 1917 - 1941." Presentation at a meeting of the American Association of Jewish Studies Conference in Boston, Dec. 1998;"'Soviet' and 'Jewish' in Soviet Jewish Popular Culture 1917 - 1941: the case of Yiddish songs." Presentation at the graduate seminar of Russian sub-faculty, faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford University, November 1998; and "The genres of the Jewish folk-songs in the Soviet Union." Presentation at the International Conference on Jewish music, Moscow, 1996.
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/german/~shternshis/
Mimi Stern-Wolfe
American. Pianist. Conductor. Graduate of Queens College, with a Master of Music in Piano and Conducting from the New England Conservatory. Board member of the American Society of Jewish music, and also member of the contemporary repertory committee of ASJM. Founder/director of Downtown Music Productions, a concert presenting organization with the Downtown Chamber and Opera Players. DMP has presented the works of hundreds of composers and has commissioned operas, chamber and vocal music, and theatrical and dance works. Over the 25 year history they have presented and performed many "Jewish Musical Currents" concerts, and have also released a CD "Composers of the Holocaust" (2001) that has been favorably reviewed in The Jewish Week, Aufbau and Jewish Currents. In 1989, she introduced the chamber works of Ervin Schulhoff at Emanuel Midtown Y Concert on 14 Street in a comprehensive concert series effort to introduce Schulhoff's complete chamber and piano works to the public. The concerts "Ervin Schulhoff Re-Discovered" and "Lost and Found" were presented several times and later at Merkin Hall. She is currently working on another program with another composer, to premiere at the Jewish Heritage Museum. On October 28, 29, 30, (2004) she will be presenting an opera at the Leonard Nimoy Theater Thalia. It is entitled "A Satin Cloak," with music and libretto by Martin Halpern, based on a Hasidic folktale. Ms. Stern-Wolfe will be conducting the downtown chamber & opera players. DMP has a websitethat describes some of the diverse programs and underscores the Composers of the Holocaust recording and efforts. Stern-Wolfe was also formerly a conductor and vocal coach at the Lake George Opera Festival and the Aspen Music Festival, and served as a performer/consultant for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Ellen Stettner
American. Cantor. Opera singer.
She served as the first cantor of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue of New York City and held the post for 21 years. Cantor Stettner is on the faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, School of Sacred Music, and currently is a member of the Joint Cantorial Placement Commission and Vice President of the American Conference of Cantors. Cantor Stettner has performed extensively throughout the country with the Santa Fe Opera, the New York Opera Ensemble, the New England Chamber Opera and the Princeton Opera. She won the prestigious National Arts and Letters Vocal Competition in Carnegie Hall and, as a result, was the featured soloist in a performance of Mozart arias with the American Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was in documentaries produced by the BBC and the French National Television. (Information from the HUC faculty website).
Deborah Strauss
Highly regarded klezmer violinist. Also accordionist and vocalist. Studied at violin, Rutgers University. Ethnomusicology, University of Chicago. Member, Klezmer Conservatory Band. Strauss/Warschauer Duo. Leads workshops and classes in the United States and Canada as well as Europe. Faculty, KlezKamp and KlezKanada. Amsterdam International Yiddish Festival and other major Jewish music festivals in Europe and and North America. Discography includes: Josh Waletzky's Crossing the Shadows, (2002); Sweet Home Bukovina Oriente Musik, (RIEN CD 13, 1998); Klezmer Music A Marriage of Heaven and Earth Ellipsis Arts (CD4090, 1996); Kapelye On the Air Shanachie(LC 5762, 1995); The Singing Waltz (Omega OCD 3027, 1996); Deborah also appears on two Klezmer Conservatory Band CDs: Dance Me to the End of Love (Rounder 11661-3169-2, 2000) and A Taste of Paradise(Rounder 11661-3189-2, 2003). She also has a CD with husband, Jeff Warschauer, Rejoicing.
Barbara Streisand
Superstar of American pop music, film, music director, Broadway actress, comedian and activist. Ms. Streisand's official website contains extensive biographical information and chronological lists of her films, awards, career and a discography. The Streisand Foundation page lists recipients of grants. Ms. Streisand is surpassed only by Elvis Presley in the number of Gold Albums sold. Blessed with the incredible voice, she remains one of my favorite singers and one of the greatest voices of the century.
http://www.barbrastreisand.com/
Elizabeth Swados
Composer, playwright, orchestrator, director, and author of 6 children's books and over directed over 30 plays. Born February 5, 1951 in Buffalo, NY. She went to Bennington College studying classical music. In the 1960s she was an activist playing folk music at political events and in coffeehouses. Winner of 3 Obie Awards and 5 Tony Award nominations. She won Outer Critics Circle Awards, a PEN Citation, and an Anne Frank National Foundation for Jewish Culture award. She also received a Ford Foundation Fellowship, a Guggenheim, a Covenant and a Spielberg grant. Composed music for the American Repertory Theatre including The Merchant of Venice, The Good Woman of Setzuan and Jacques and His Master. She wrote some Broadway shows, incidental music for film and television productions. Over a twenty-five year period, she's composed music for theater including Runaways (1978), Doonesbury (1983), Rap Master Ronnie (1984) and incidental music for The Cherry Orchard and Agamemnon both in 1977. She premiered "Missionaries" in November, 1997. In "The Hating Pot", Swados directed a play dealing with racism. Of that she said:" I was distressed by what seemed to be a resurgence of blatant anti-Semitism and race hatred in our country, and particularly in young people. It seemed to me that words and ideas were being thrown around without any sense of history or the ramifications. Since I am a Jew, I was particularly sensitive to the relations between Blacks and Jews which have reached an unnecessary boiling point. But I found that the name-calling, stereotyping and shallow thinking applied to all outsiders - anyone strange or unconventional. Therefore, I used my knowledge of the roots of anti-Semitism as a basis for opening up a dialogue in improvisation, music, composition and movement, and hoped that many kids from all over the world would help me understand why we hate." (from http://www.usanetwork.com/functions/justone/universality2.html, accessed, 11/03/02)
She writes Jewish-themed music, basing some musical theater works on Biblical stories, such as "A Circus" based on Job, "Esther" and "Haggadah". In her oratorio, "Jerusalem", she attempts to combine liturgy, poetry and biblical texts. Her CD "Bible Women", ommissioned by Ma'yan in 1994, received tremendous interest in the press. Her film credits include "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" (1999). in 2002, she was appointed to serve as the Rabbi Sally J. Priesand Visiting Professor of Jewish Women's Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where she will direct a production of "The Haggadah". Her children's book Dreamtective is being turned into a Disney production. Her new works include Hey, You Come Here, a new children's book, and The Three Gods, a music work based on Judith in the Bible.
http://www.lizswados.com/
Alicia Svigals
American violinist, teacher. She was born in the Bronx, N.Y. on January 8, 1963. Graduated from Brown University in ethnomusicology. Joined the "Klezmatics" in 1986 and began concertizing in the United States with the klezmer group. In 1997, Ms. Svigals produced a solo album, "Fidl". She joined the all female group "Mikveh" in 1998.