If you have something you would like announced on this page, send me an email. Please do not send attachments. Restrict your suggestions to items relevant to Jewish music. Thanks. —Judy
Announcments
2nd Annual International Composers Competition
Prizes: Performance and recording in New York's Lincoln Center in Spring 2004.1st: $1,000
2nd: $800
3rd: $700
4th: $500
STUDIO for New Music (NY) comprises many of NY's finest performers, including members of NY Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Ensemble Sospeso, Continuum and faculty from The Juilliard School.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION http://studiofornewmusic.pmail.biz/pmailweb/ct?id=27+9034753+24+2
www.STUDIOforNewMusic.com
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The 20th Zimriya: World Assembly of Choirs in Israel
August 2-12, August, 2004
Choirs from all over the world are invited once more to come to the Zimriya in Jeruslam. Youth Choirs (14 years and above) are welcome. Participants will stay on the beautiful campus of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus overlooking Jerusalem of Gold. Workshops will be held during the day. Open Singing, Choir to Choir sessions and Concerts will take plae at night. World famous conductors will dlead workshops. choirs will tour Jerusalem and will give concerts at various locations in Israel. Payment for 10 days board and lodging as well as tours is $475 US per person. Choirs interested in attending are requested to contact:
Zimriya
4, Aharonowitz Street, Tel Aviv 63 566, Israel
Tel: +972-3-528-0233
Fax: +972-3-629-9524
Email: harzimco@netvision.net.il
http://www.zimriya.org.il
The Rozhinke Retreat: Reclaiming the Cantorial Arts for the 21st Century
Conference on Cantorial music in the Catskills.
http://rozhinke.org/home.html
--Boston, MA--
B o s t o n U n i v e r s i t yElie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies
presents the Horn-Berger Concert
A l i c i a S v i g a l s and her Ensemble
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
8 p.m.
School of Management Auditorium
595 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA, USA
Violinist Alicia Svigals, who is considered by many to be the world's leading klezmer fiddler, was a founder of the renowned Jewish roots groups the Klezmatics, and of her current band, the all-female Mikveh. As a musician and composer, she has worked with Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, Allen Ginsburg, Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Hasidic superstar Avraham Fried, and singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman.
She has been at the forefront of the Klezmer revival, rediscovering and reinventing the sound of the Klezmer fiddle, the central instrument in klezmer music before the Holocaust. A musician and composer, Svigals is widely acclaimed for her virtuosic technique and lyricism.
Svigals will be joined by an old-world string band made up of Boston's finest klezmer musicians, including members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and of Andy Statman's ensemble: Jim Guttman, bass; Miriam Rabson and Rohan Gregory, violins; Pete Rushefsky, tsimbl; and Larry Eagle, percussion.
Free and open to the public. For information call 617-353-8096.
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The IFSM Editorial Board is now collecting material for the IFSM email Newsletter no. 2 to be published in October. They will be interested in receiving articles for consideration under the following headings:
* Original research (long articles may have a summary in the newsletter and
be published on the IFSM WebPages).
* Interviews with relevant composers or their children and colleagues
* Book, record and live performance reviews of relevant material
* Questions and queries about composers and repertoire
* URLs of relevant websites
* Reports and information of conferences and seminars
* Notices of future performances of relevant repertoire
*IFSM will also be creating a database, to be published on the web, of composers, the location of their archives and the repertoire available. Information of that nature will be welcome.
The IFSM newsletter will also be hosting the Worldwide Centenary Celebration of Berthold Goldschmidt, in 2003, the centenary of Berthold Goldschmidt (born 18 January 1903), giving the opportunity to review and reappraise the life and works of this important composer. The BBC will be programming his symphonies and we invite anyone planning Goldschmidt works or events to let us know and we will add them to the ‘party’.
Goldschmidt's output spans virtually the whole of the 20th century, from the early Passacaglia, written in 1925 when he still a pupil of Franz Schreker at the Berlin Hochschule, to his final work, the valedictory Deux nocturnes for soprano and orchestra, completed in London in 1996 at the age of 93. The story of how he fled Nazi Germany for London in the 1930s where he worked in virtual obscurity until a remarkable flowering of interest in the 1980s and 90s is undoubtedly one of the most striking events in late twentieth century musical history. His output includes works in all the major genres including two operas, orchestral works, concertos, vocal music with orchestra and piano, four fine string quartets and a host of pieces for smaller combinations.
For further information on Goldschmidt and his works, please visit the
Boosey & Hawkes website www.boosey.com or contact
Lloyd Moore on Tel: + 207 291 7229, or e-mail at lloyd.moore@boosey.com
Pease send all submissions to: ifsmeditors@jmi.org.uk
--San Francisco--
Yiddish Song Workshop -- Political Songs and Songs of Freedom
Monday, November 17 12-1:30pm
Congregation Beth Sholom -- corner of 14th & Clement, San Francisco
Friedman Center
Led by Cantor Sharon Jan Bernstein
A combination teaching session and sing-along, these Yiddish song workshops
are designed for us all to learn -- and sing -- more of the thousands of
amazing Yiddish songs that exist. Texts will be provided in Yiddish and in
transliteration, and we'll go over the meanings and melodies together. Both
more and lesser known songs will be covered.
KLEZKAMP
The 19th Annual Yiddish Folk Arts Program "KlezKamp" will be held from December 23-29, 2003 at the Swan Lake Hotel in the heart of New York's Catskill region. For information about the program, registration, and
work/study options please go to our website http://www.klezkamp.org.
Di
YIDISH-VOKH 2004
vet forkumen fun mitvokh, dem 25stn oygust
biz dinstik, dem 31stn oygust 2004
in dem Berkshire Hills Emanuel Adult Vacation Center,
Copake, NY
Nokh kashes? Vendt zikh tsu
yugntruf@yugntruf.org
Special Releases/Announcements/Courses & New Compositions or Works
Dr. Bruce Roter new choral setting of Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages)
It's a new melody with the traditional Hanukah text and was just published by Transcontinental Music Publications. It's a very approachable work for amateur (including youth) or professional choirs. Dr. Roter invites you to listen to a performance by the Westminster Conservatory Youth Choral on his website at www.bruceroter.com
The Birth of Jewish Art Music Course at YIVO
The Birth of Jewish Art Music 3 Wednesdays, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
10/29, 11/5, and 11/12
Instructor: Paula Eisenstein Baker, University of St. Thomas (Houston) and Emory University
Tuition: $70/ $60 (YIVO Members)
St. Petersburg, Russia, 1908: a group of Rimsky-Korsakov's conservatory students organizae the Society for Jewish Folk (Ethnic) Music, whose goals include the composition of art music based on Jewish material. This course examines the Society and one of its members, composer Leo Zeitlin (1884-1930). It traces his life inside and outside the Pale of Settlement and focuses on the Jewish themes in his works, which are illustrated with recordings. All discussions in English.
For more information, call 212-294-6154.
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Help for Sophia Herzog Sachs
The story behind the music is rather sad. Sophia Herzog Sachs, the child
of some dear friends of Herb Moore, suffers from a disease called Niemann-Pick
disease, for which there is no known cure. The disease is caused by
mutations in the gene that produces an enzyme called Acid
Sphingomyelinase (ASM).
Herb made a CD of music based on the 'correct or normal' DNA sequences
from the gene that produces ASM.
A substantial portion of proceeds from sale of the CDs are donated to
the Sophia's Garden Foundation http://www.sophiasgarden.org, set up by
the parents of Sophia for the community work they are doing.
The story of the music and of Sophia and family will be appearing in the
publication FORWARD http://www.forward.com/ in mid August 2003.
Herb says: "This has been a very rewarding project for me personally. It's been
really nice to find a way to contribute my musical passion to the
community of Sophia's friends and family."
..."this is not exactly Jewish music as in music of Jewish
culture. It has more of a 'new age' feeling I suppose. But the music is
part of the spirit of community I see rallying around Sophia and her
life's journey, from her Jewish community but also from a community many
other caring folks. "
Some mp3 snippets from the CD, more about Sophia, and so forth can be
found at:
http://www.melosync.com
Thanks,
Herb Moore
melosync@omix.com
http://www.melosync.com
Dear Colleagues at GTM, PMN, and MLA (esp. the JMRT):
Commemorating the 8th Yahrtzeit of Yitzhak Rabin this fall, Jewish Currents plans to publish my singing English translation of the Shir L'Shalom, which he (and thousands of others) sang just before his death. This version was performed in 1995 at North Shore Synagogue in Syosset, and at the Concord in 1996 as part of a celebration of the Lehrman Family, whose Newsletter published it. The Oceanside Chorale will be performing it Dec. 6, 2003, and it will be available to others as well.
My translation differs markedly from the one edited by Michael Isaacson, published by Transcontinental. Sticking close to the original, mine emphasizes the need to work for peace, rather than just praying for it. The Isaacson version says, essentially, "Let's all pray for peace."
At, and following, the most recent GTM convention, I had an interesting conversation, and correspondence, with Michael about this, and would be interested in others' thoughts, which could find their way into what I shall write by way of commentary on the work in Jewish Currents. (And if anyone knows how to reach the Israeli creators of the song directly, by email, I'd appreciate that information too!) My deadline is next week, so please let me hear from you this week if possible.
Thanks - Leonard J. Lehrman
33 Court St., Valley Stream, NY 11580
http://ljlehrman.artists-in-residence.com
Ruth Eisenberg from Baltimore writes:
There's something new out there in the world of Jewish music that I definitely think should be posted on the JMWC site... The first volume of a projected
5-volume work entitled The Musical Tradition of the Eastern European Synagogue was recently released by Syracuse University Press. Its subtitle is History and Definition, and it is designed to provide a concise history of the
tradition in its totality. I'm sure you know that for hundreds of years, the music of the Eastern European synagogue, which is the musical heritage of the overwhelming majority of the world's Jews and one of the greatest musical-liturgical traditions ever to exist, was integral to the daily fabric of Jewish life. This 5-volume project makes possible the heretofore unimagined existence of one centralized, definitve place and resource with sytematic and easy access to this vast and major musical, cultural, and historic legacy.
The 5 volumes together will provide a thoroughly comprehensive history, verbal explanation, and documentation (including all of the notated
music), and facilitates an unprecedented capacity for thorough, in-depth exposure to and study of the tradition in its entirety. This work truly amounts to nothing less than rescuing a vast cultural treasure from near certain oblivion. I think people should know about this and that the first volume
is now available. Volume I provides a 277-page text with an accompanying 227-page volume of illustrative examples. It traces the roots and component liturgical, philosophical, musical, and vocal elements of the tradition, accured in the periods and places of its history. To the best of my knowledge, no comparable work exists. The existing anthologies usually deal with specific subjects, such as compositions by one cantor, or the artistic compositions for cantor and choir. But thus far no anthology was able to represent the Eastern European tradition in its multi-faceted richness. Sholom Kalib's work does just that, and I know it will excite the interest of music scholars and performers, Jews and non-Jews, who will be interested in this as a contribution to the history of liturgical music in general.
There are two books that comprise Volume I. Part One is text, and Part Two is a book of notated music that are illustrative examples.
Load date 05.20.03
Jewish Music for Guitar
Rob Citron has generously supplied a listing of places for students and others to find Jewish music for guitar. This is a great start and I appreciated this, as I've had many requests for instrumental music for various instruments.
Whole Note Music, The Israeli Guitar Book (Tara); The Complete Jewish Songbook (Transcontinental); Jewish Play-Along, Vol. 1 for C Instruments (Tara); Jewish Songs for Classical Guitar (Transcontinental);The Best Of Israeli Folksongs - An Anthology by Velvel Pasternak (Tara);
Let me list also for guitar: Blues for Peace
The Complete Shireinu: 350 Fully Notated Jewish Songs from Transcontinental
Tara Music
Berakhot: A Midrash
Cantata
Bruce Chalmer, choir director and lay service leader at Beth Jacob Synagogue in Montpelier, Vermont, has written a work entitled "Berakhot: A Midrash
Cantata." The work, of about an hour's duration, consists of 26 pieces, each a midrashic interpretation based on a berakha or scriptural or Talmudictext related to berakhot.
First performance of the work will be in the fall of 2002 by the Fyre and Lightning Consort, a Vermont-based group of musicians. The work includes pieces scored for voices (SATB) and a variety of instruments (recorders, harp, lute, clarinet, trumpets, tuba, et al.), and includes many different styles (medieval- and renaissance-like polyphony, blues, klezmer, barbershop quartet, et al.).
A website (http://www.someware.com/berakhot) tells more about the cantata. Links are provided that allow you to see the score and hear a MIDI rendition
of each piece, as well as see the program notes, which include lyrics and the composer's commentary. Bruce would welcome any feedback.
http://www.someware.com/berakhot
International Archive of Jewish Music
Burton A. Zipser, Director. Located in Southfield, Michigan, the mission of the IAJM is to
discover, collect, preserve, and disseminate information about music for adult choirs and instrumental groups of varying sizes. The International Archive of Jewish Music primarily is concerned with choral works of Jewish music. The Archive is part of a recognized non-profit. As of the end of 2001, over 1100 choral compositions are included in the choral section of the Archive. The Archive has also created a database of composers of Jewish music. There are over 1626 names in that database, with approximately 60% being cantors.
Music has been acquired through contributions from composers, as well as discounted purchases from publishers' lists. Three collections have been obtained in either microfilm or xerox-flow
versions and these are being catalogued. Because the Archive also has a performance "arm", it will be
possible to present concerts of the music, and to work in cooperative efforts with publishers and composers to create recorded versions of the music which can be a further benefit to the composer
or his/her estate.
All inquiries should be directed to:
Burton A. Zipser
The International Archive of Jewish Music
c/o Oakland Performing Arts, Inc.
17333 W. Ten Mile Rd. Suite B
Southfield, MI 48075-2950
E-mail: zipmusic@bignet.net
Phone: 248-552-0025
Fax: 248-552-0027
NEW GROUP ANNOUNCEMENTS
Shir Hama'alot --Montreal, Quebec--
An 8-voice semiprofessional chamber choir, which performs Jewish liturgical music in Montreal (and beyond?)has recently been formed. Shir Hamaalot has been around for about a year, and gave a first concert at Montreal's Shaare Zion Congregation in June 2003. Since then they performed at two other synagogues, and took part in a commemorative concert for September 11th at McGill's Anglican Theological College. For info, call Jerry at 514-737-6600, or email: shir_hamaalot@canada.com
Octava
"Octava" is an Israeli vocal ensemble with 12 amateur singers. Located at Haifa, Israel. Repertoire includes various types of music, classical, Folklore, Jazz and light music.
http://www.geocities.com/octavaensemble/index.htm
Sefarad
--Israel--
Avi Avital, Mandolin, Bari Moscovitz-Seidelman, Guitar, and Silvia Corsi, Actress, come together as Sefarad, a program that "combines unique musical arrangements of Ladino songs and ancient Sephardic Jewish Romances, alongside personal stories and historical anedcotes... offering a glimpse of jewish family and community life in pre-Inquisition Spain." The stories go from Spain, through the Diaspora and culminating in modern Israel. The group comes from Israel and is endorsed by the national authority on Ladino culture.
Contact information: sefaradensemble@hotmail.com to view a poster advertising the group, click here for photo.
Veretskipass
Melodies from Medieval Poland, dances from Bessarabia, Ruthenia, and Bukovina, and music with origins in the Ottoman Empire. Stars Cookie Segelstein, violin, Stu Brotman, bass, and Josh Horowitz, tsimbl.
http://www.veretskipass.com/
To see extended listings of past announcements on the JMWC, go to the Announcement Archive.
Jewish Entertainment Resources Directory, JERD, Events Calendar
Artists listed alphabetically and cross referenced by category and a concert calendar by geographic area. Judy Caplan Ginsburgh does this for a hobby. She has over 100 various artists listings, which will get you started. She includes musicians, actors, dancers, storytellers and comedians among other performing arts entertainers. Performers are encouraged to submit listings to the site.
http://www.jewishentertainment.net
Musi-Cal North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance
Use the search function and type "klezmer" for a chronological listing of several upcoming events. Gives dates, time, place and links to band websites. Includes links to venue locations with local contact information, which is very helpful for those wishing to attend the concerts.
http://concerts.calendar.com/
German Klezmer Pages
Provides reviews of CDs, recordings and concerts. Helpful in discovering some newer European bands and events. Includes concert schedules in German cities.Also: Schedules at Schedules
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1791/
Zamir Chorale
Zamir Chorale concert schedule and excerpts from recordings are available at their website. This site also contains links to Jewish music resources.
http://www.zamir.org/