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Dear Friends,
Fall greetings to you and Shanah Tovah! May 5786 be a sweet, safe, and healthy year for you and your loved ones. Rehearsals are already in full swing as we prepare for a busy season of concerts in the Boston area and beyond. Fall highlights include collaborations with the Nashirah Chorale of Philadelphia, the Klezwoods band, and our traditional Hanukkah Happens with Hazzan Elias Rosemberg at Temple Emanuel. Spring 2026 takes us to Washington, DC, and Philadelphia, and lands us back in Boston for our June season finale. Save the dates! And enjoy Josh Jacobson’s reflections on the intersection of music and politics—not a new concept but one that takes on special meaning in these uncertain times.
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In each issue of E-Notes, Artistic Director Joshua Jacobson offers his unique insights and experiences as a world-renowned scholar, composer, conductor, and influential teacher of Jewish music.
Music and Politics
Music is expressive. But what does music express? In its pure form, music expresses itself, nothing more. Any (verbal) meaning is in the mind of the listener. A Mozart symphony is expressive, but its expression is abstract.
And yet, within the world of Western classical music, some symphonic works do communicate specific ideas. In his Missa Solemnis, Beethoven makes us feel the horrors of war when he introduces snare drums and trumpets in the middle of his prayer of peace, “Dona Nobis Pacem.” And we’re all familiar with that same composer’s urgent plea for universal brotherhood—“Alle Menschen werden Brüder”—in the finale of his ninth symphony.
Many popular song lyrics carry political messages: patriotism in Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” civil rights in Pete Seeger’s version of the old gospel song “We Shall Overcome,” a plea for peace in Rotblit and Rosenblum’s “Shir La-Shalom.”
National anthems (both official and unofficial) often express a country’s values or describe its beauty. Think of the messages of these (unofficial) American anthems: “beautiful spacious skies, amber waves of grain,” or “sweet land of liberty.” Or from Israel’s national anthem, the aspiration that “our ages-old hope to be a free nation in our own land is not yet lost.”
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Unlike most choruses, the Zamir Chorale of Boston has a political orientation. We are not aligned with a specific political party, but our raison d’être has always been to represent the musics of the Jewish people (whether we interpret Jewish as a nation, an ethnicity, a culture, or a religion, or all of the above).
At the same time, we’re also an American choir. We represent America to the world as well as to our home audiences. This fall, to honor America’s semiquincentennial, our programming will focus on our connection with the American founding values of democracy. For instance, we’ll be performing Bostonian composer William Billings’s 1770 patriotic song “Chester,” whose lyrics include “Let tyrants shake their iron rod.” We’ll also offer Zamir alumna Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller’s “Proclaim Liberty!” and Cambridge composer Randall Thompson’s anthem, “He that ruleth over men must be just,” from “The Last Words of David.” And we’ll intone the words from Irving Berlin’s powerful setting of Emma Lazarus’s poem, “The New Colossus,” inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
We are also including songs expressing our hope and values for the Jewish state, such as the modern tikkun olam anthem, Einstein and Gavrielov’s “Ani Ve-ata neshaneh et ha-olam” (“You and I will change the world”). And we express our support for Ukraine with Lutsenko and Shamo’s 2014 patriotic anthem, “Kyiv of Mine.”
In addition, this fall we are paying tribute to a unique American/Jewish idiom, as we join up with the Klezwoods band to present songs that are a melding of Eastern European klezmer styles with American jazz.
We hope and fervently pray that our music will provide some bright spots in a world that often seems so dark.
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Sunday, October 26, 3:00 pm, Church on the Hill, 140 Bowdoin St, Boston: Zamir’s chamber chorus will perform a free concert in the historic church where our former assistant conductor Andrew Mattfeld is music director. The varied program includes music by Rossi, Billings, Esenevaldz, Secunda, Osborne, Verdi, and Rutter, with Ed Swanborn on piano and organ. Details at https://churchonthehillboston.org/.
Sunday, November 2, 2:00 pm, Temple Reyim, 1860 Washington St, Newton: The acclaimed Nashirah Chorale of Philadelphia, fresh off a series of concerts in Paris, returns to Boston for a joint concert with Zamir. The singers will surround the audience for another immersive experience. The program will feature music from a variety of traditions, including Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino songs; tributes to America’s semiquincentennial; and an ode to Kyiv, the birthplace of Nashirah’s conductor, Julia Zavadsky. Purchase tickets here.
Sunday, November 23, 3:00 pm, Temple Sinai of Sharon, 25 Canton St, Sharon: Don’t miss “Klezamir,” a joint concert with Zamir and Temple Sinai’s Cantor Becky Khitrik and her band, Klezwoods, featuring exhilarating music combining choral and klezmer traditions. Ticket info: https://www.temple-sinai.com/
Wednesday, December 24, 7:30 pm, Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward St, Newton: We’re thrilled to return to Temple Emanuel for our traditional “Hanukkah Happens” concert, this year featuring the Klezwoods band and soloist Hazzan Elias Rosemberg. Ticket info: templeemanuel.com.
Sunday, March 22, 2026, Adas Israel Congregation, 2850 Quebec St NW, Washington, DC: Zamir alumna Hazzan Hinda Eisen Labovitz will host us for a major concert with orchestra, featuring Hazzan Charles Osborne’s stunning oratorio Like Wildflowers Suddenly, inspired by the poetry of Yehudah Amichai, with a libretto by Aryeh Finkelstein. Zamir premiered this work in 2008 as part our celebration of Israel's 60th. Details to come.
Sunday, April 19, 2:00 pm, Congregation Adath Jeshurun, 7763 Old York Road, Elkins Park, PA: Joint concert with Nashirah in Philadelphia. Program details to come in the spring.
Sunday, June 7, 5:00 pm, Central Reform Temple, Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston: Our season finale, co-sponsored by Rabbi Michael Shire’s Central Reform Temple, features renowned Cantor Josh Breitzer and Zamir’s own organist Edwin Swanborn for “Sacred Musical Majesty,” a concert of the greatest synagogue compositions of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ticket details to come in the spring.
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New Members 2025-26
A hearty Zamir welcome to our newest members, sopranos Lisa Marcus and Susan Van Dyke, and alto Rachel Graham.
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Notes from a Maestro
In August, Zamir launched a fascinating and delightful three-part interview between Josh Jacobson and Stanley Sperber, one of Israel’s preeminent conductors, who first made his reputation as the founder and conductor of the Zamir Chorale in New York. In this YouTube series, replete with archival photos and recordings, Maestro Sperber and Josh flash back to the 1960s to talk about the early years of Zamir in New York and Boston. Along the way, they explore the career challenges Stanley faced upon moving from the U.S. to Israel.
Later, Stanley muses about some of the great musicians he has worked with, including Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta, and describes his other career as the oldest umpire on the professional tennis circuit. And thanks for your lovely notes, including this one, from Bruce Creditor, former Zamir chair and assistant personnel manager of the Boston Symphony Orchestra: “How wonderful to hear about Stanley Sperber’s musical journey and learning about the choral situation in Israel. Also, about his mentorship of Josh Jacobson and the development of the Zamir Chorales. Very enjoyable!”
Or from conductor, ethnomusicologist, and human rights activist André de Quadros: “Stanley Sperber is one of Israel’s great conductors, teachers, and artists. His deep humanity and commitment to egalitarian artistry make him a beacon of hope in dark times. I am grateful to Josh Jacobson for the wonderful interview.”
If you haven’t watched yet (or if you want to watch again), here is the link.
| As always, let us know what you’re up to—we love hearing from our friends near and far! May you find peace and joy in the New Year. | | |
Barbara Gaffin
Managing Director
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